Day 299 - 365/2014

Day Two Hundred Ninety-Nine

This afternoon I was thinking about the bowling pin cat-creature's eyes.  Will I use glass taxidermy eyes (that I have set down somewhere and can't find at the moment), will I paint them on, will I paper them on?  In the past I have also used those "jumbo glass jewels" that are used for anchoring flowers in tall vases and painted the undersides...that has sort of worked but I don't have two of the same (or even nearly the same) size and Michaels was fresh out of them.  BUT I was digging around in the drawers of  my little fake apothecary cabinet and I found these instead.  They just might work.  I think they came from MBAD African Bead Museum -- we didn't know for sure what they were but I liked them and I knew I would use them eventually.

A few of the things I was trying out as eyes for the bowling pin cat-creature.  I sort of like the bottle caps for eyes, too -- I have never tried that before.

The vintage-y beads -- they might look too large in this photo...it is a slightly odd angle -- plus, some of the discs will be covered with plaster cloth to secure them in place.  It almost looks like a monocle, doesn't it?  Hmmm...

And then tonight...
You know how when you are going to have someone come in and help you clean your house and you run around the night before picking stuff up and putting stuff away and vacuuming, etc.?  Well, that is sort of what I have been up to tonight in the wet studio.  My good friend Andi is coming tomorrow to help me with a couple of projects and then we will have a nice lunch out.  

Progress pictures (so far) of the wet studio getting sorted out and rearranged (again).

I am not terribly proud to show the state of the wet studio...but here it is.

Partway through...packed up some plaster cloth projects and their parts...getting ready to move the sewing machine.

The sewing machine is closed up and stashed under the stairs and the stuff to go up to the loft is stacked up next to it.

Okay, I am just about spent for the night...I am going to take a breather in front of tv for a bit.  If I get a second wind I might break down the cardboard boxes and bundle them for trash/recycle collection tomorrow...good timing...but if I don't, there is always next week.  I am eager to get going with Andi tomorrow!

Day 83 - 365/2014

Day Eighty-Three

A little clearing/sorting/putting away...and a little bit of papering.

Hey -- I cleared off the front of my desk!

Studio B - before

Studio B - after -- still a way to go, but at least I can walk around in there again...and the really big box (in front of the rabbit guy) will be gone tomorrow.

I pulled the nails from the back of the newly acquired oil painting to release it from its frame and removed the hanging wire and screw eyes...and slathered on the matte medium.

This is the very wet first layer of papers...much more to come, no doubt!

I have a long day of car loading/car driving/car unloading/car driving/walking around/sitting in the restaurant/driving home ahead of me tomorrow...this is all that my back and legs could put up with for tonight.

2012/365 - Day 113

wheeeeeeeeeeeee!

I did it!!!  I cleared up the clutter behind my desk in my studio -- I can spin around in my chair again!  I can dance around to music!  I can walk into the CD closet and find music I am looking for!  The paper is all together! 

 I have a good feeling that the Universal collaborators will be showing up later tonight -- especially now that there is so much room!

You can see the "before" photos in the post for Day 112.

more follow up: studio clearing

wow -- I surprised myself!

After yesterday's epic moving of things around the studio, up and down the stairs to the basement, and trips out to the garage I am very surprised that I managed to get ANYthing else done in the studio clean up today.

But LOOK -- it's the work surface of the big table! Oh my gosh -- I can allow myself to work with plaster cloth tonight!











You can actually SEE all the way from the door to the very back of the studio!


















And yep, yep, yep -- I can WALK around behind my desk and...








...into the CD closet (instead of climbing over stuff and moving piles of things to get to a path),




If I was strong enough, I could even use the elliptical machine -- but that will come later once we get stuff straightened out.










I really can't believe I have gotten this far in clearing out the studio space. There is still quite a bit to do, but at least I can work at the table again!

And NO OBSTACLE COURSE to get to my desk!

Wa-hooooo!

more follow up: studio clean up

more progress on a Saturday afternoon...


You know the slider puzzles where you have to keep moving things around to finally get to the numbers in the correct order or to make a picture from a bunch of jumbled tiles?


Well, that is what my studio is like right now. I have stacks of things, bins, boxes, etc. that I can't really put anywhere permanent until I move other things around, but in order to do that I need to make what looks like a bigger mess for a while then I can undo it and move things around again. It also traps me in corners/areas of the studio...good thing no one came to the door with a delivery!


Here is an example. See how the shelf at the upper left corner is starting to get filled up with stuff already? And see the moveable stacks of things?

In this photo I am making a path back to the window to move a table to be able to set that shelf over in its place so that I can put works in progress there.






The table that will be switched...I think it will give me more walking space in the long run...but for the moment the room is a giant sliding puzzle.













Voila!

I moved the table and put the shelf in its place and popped all of the smaller in-progress plaster cloth guys on it.

There is also room under the bottom shelf where I can stash other things or maybe a box of plaster cloth.











Moving the little plaster cloth guys freed up space on these shelves.












And those shelves are on the left side of this photo.

This is where I moved the table. It is otherwise "dead" space and now the papier mache cat is safe, too.












Oh, man...I need to make better use of this storage rack!















Ha...the twirly sprinkler crown bear is temporarily safe in the studio bathroom.















BUT...in order to be able to get back out of the corner I trapped myself in I needed to move the stacks of stuff in front of the newly placed works in progress shelf.

Again, a temporary sliding puzzle move.











And hey -- I can get back out of the studio again!





Time for another well-deserved break I'd say!

follow up: 365 Day 245

following up on yesterday






this was last night










yay -- this is this morning!












The first cabinet was the worst...it was just barely holding itself together. I dismantled it and bent/hammered all the sharp nail edges down. I pulled out the other sharp staples and nails and stacked all of the parts.

The second cabinet wasn't as bad. It only had the top part that was bad and for about 10 minutes I thought I would try to repair it...but it didn't want to be repaired. So I repeated all the steps.

The third cabinet, however, was in very good shape. I only needed to do something about two screws and a few staples that were sticking out. It is actually very very solid.




This is the third cabinet and the screws that were sticking out.

I've never tried to use my hack saw to actually cut metal yet (which is why I bought it in the first place) so I figured those screws would be a good test.











Success! I sawed mostly through and then banged the screw over with the hammer and it snapped right off...rendering the cabinet harmless.











I really want to try and do something with it, but it is NOT allowed to take up space in my studio until I work on it.














So I moved it out to the dining room -- where I will have to see it every day.

But for now it is out of the way and almost looks like it belongs where I stashed it. And it is even safe enough for Twink to play in if he wants to.










I have made a lot of trips out to the garage and down to the basement today already. It is incredibly hot and humid outside today. I need to listen to my very-wrecked-fat-old-woman's-body and take a break for a bit.

Yes, I brought that shelf up from the basement. No, it isn't staying where it is in the photo...it is just parked there temporarily for the afternoon.

But hey...no more obstacle course!


I am going to keep at this until the studio is useable again. It will take several days but I am going to do it!