My Studio: packing and shipping

When you work from home sometimes space can be limited. Since we moved from Utah to Florida, I no longer have a large basement studio space so I'm thankful that I have a decent sized office space to work in. I'll show you more photos another time, but I wanted to show you my packaging/shipping/receiving station today.

My Shipping and Receiving station in my home studio

The quilt on the wall is one that my mom made and I hand quilted. The colors look nice in this room.  It is called "Peppermint and Sassafrass." The rug is one my husband purchased while stationed in Turkey. The picture on the wall to the left is one we purchased in South Korea when we lived there and it shows plum blossoms and has a Bible verse (I Thess 5:16-18) written in Korean.

Notice the bed risers that I've used to increase the height of the table

It is such a luxury to have one clear flat surface to pack outgoing orders and to unpack supply orders on. I raised the table up to waist level with inexpensive bed risers. I placed small pieces of non-slip mat in the top of the bed risers to keep them from sliding around. When I do a show I use this table and the bed risers so it does double duty then. It's a 5 ft folding table so it's easy to take with me. On the table I keep a paper cutter to trim down the shipping labels/postage that I print off of my computer to fit on my small jewelry packages. I also have a postage meter, some customs slips for International orders, business cards, packaging tape and a few other supplies. On the metal shelf unit to the right I keep all of my tissue paper, boxes, padded envelopes, jewelry boxes, pouches and everything else I need for shipping.  Inventory fits underneath so it's handy to ship as well as some boxes that are packed with lights, tablecloths and display items for shows.

We tend to move a lot so I've never bothered to invest in permanent office or studio furniture. This will have to do until my husband retires and we stop moving. It is very functional. I hope you enjoyed the mini tour.

Sue

Household Hint: Preserving Memories--School Art

It's the end of the school year once again.  My son, Caleb finished up 4th grade. The last week of school he brought home armloads of artwork and projects from the year. Sure, we're saving some of it, but we're moving soon and we're doing the pre-move purge. As much as we like them, the 2 1/2 ft long fish with glitter and the "parade float" made from a shoebox and Legos must go. The memories can be preserved with photos. We went outside this morning and snapped photos of him with his artwork. Now that we have lasting documentation he's happy to let some of them go. Later we'll scan some of his schoolwork papers and save them as files on the computer.

Featured Artist: Laura Evans of levansphotography

laura

love. laugh. believe

laura evans/photography - capturing life

That line is the first thing you'll see when you visit the Etsy shop of Laura Evans and it is fitting. I've so enjoyed watching Laura's shop truly blossom over the past months. Browse for a few moments and you'll soon feel like you are walking through a gallery and appreciating the world through Laura's eyes.

vintage shutters

Laura currently lives in Germany and travels around taking photos of some amazing places. She manages to capture those allusive atmospheric qualities of each place.

a moody view of the Eiffel Tower

She also playfully captures the charms of every day items like clotheslines, road signs or a blade of grass. Take a deep breath. You can almost smell the oranges, the sea air and the snow.

blade of grass

all the fun of the fair

winter's dew

Laura's Etsy Shop

Laura's Blog
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Laura's Twitter

My Studio

I've been meaning to do this for a while. Seems like people are often interested in seeing the studio spaces of artists and crafts people. So I tidied mine up and took a few shots. Being a military family, we move a lot. Therefore my studio space doesn't have as much style as one might expect from an artist. There just doesn't seem to be enough time in between moves to settle in. Looks like I should at least hang one of my art quilts on the wall.

Above: Even though the storage boxes above aren't particularly convenient, they are the best way for me to separate out my supplies and to not have a huge stack of brown cardboard mystery boxes to sort through whenever we move. The movers will just tape these up and throw them on the truck. No, these aren't all jewelry making supplies. There are several boxes of quilting fabrics, stained glass and basketry supplies, soap making supplies, paper craft, knitting, drawing, painting and tatting supplies and the list goes on. You can just see the closet door. I'm not photographing the inside of that closet! It's mostly full of winter clothes anyway ☺

Above: This is where I create my jewelry. It is also not very exciting. It's usually not this tidy either. On the floor is one of the many carpets my husband got while being stationed in Turkey.

Above: I have a small TV to keep me company here in my second storey studio. I usually watch HGTV while I work. My sewing machine sits under the table in case I get the urge to do some quilting.

Above: My photography area for jewelry. I have a light box set up on a tabletop with my camera tripod. Photography is my least favorite part of my job. I am slowly getting better at it though. On the floor along the wall you can see some of fabric covered backgrounds that I use to set up my shots. To the left is my garment steamer which I love and use all the time (not on jewelry). I've saved a spot next to it for the dress form I hope to get soon to use for jewelry photography. There is an ironing board hanging behind the door (not pictured) that I set up in this space when I need it.

Above: A necklace set ready to photograph. I just moved this set-up over by the window to get more natural light. Maybe my photographs will be better for it. I made my own neutral grey velvet backdrop for the light box.

Above: Props I use for photography. Most of my fabric backgrounds and props have a natural or Asian influence just like my jewelry designs.

Above: The view from my second storey studio window of about half of our small backyard. When we bought the house there was no landscaping and we just finished it this spring doing all the work ourselves. I'm very proud of the flagstone bench that my husband made for me and have been using it as a surface to photograph on lately. It makes a nice backdrop for jewelry. You can see a little of the apricot tree I also use to photograph earrings in the bottom left corner. Since we are in the desert, there is not a lot of green, but the things we planted should be getting established and starting to fill in--about the time we get ready to move again . . .