What's On My Work Table: Wednesday

Hey kids, what time is it?! It's time for "What's On My Workdesk Wednesday"! AKA "What's On My Art Table Wednesday"! It's so fabulous it has two names!

Workdesk. Art table. Tomato. Tomahto. 

Actually the posts I started doing (and apparently stopped) were called "What's On My Art Table Wednesday?". Today it's changed because I want to participate in "What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday" (WOYWW) over at the Stamping Ground blog.

I took this photograph yesterday when what was in front of me while art-ing struck me as such a beautiful colorful mess. And I love those kinds of messes! 

The colored bits of paper are all painted by me for use in my mixed media collage. This photo shows quite a lot of the various media I like to use. I use paint, markers, paper, inks, stamps that I make myself, fiber, ribbons, watercolors, stencils - both homemade and purchased, gel mediums, and paper punches to name a few. 

The piece I am currently working on is that tiny oblong rectangle of green next to my yellow striped scissors. That is the size of my original collages for my line of domino pendants. Tiny. 

This photo was taken with my iPhone 4S, with which am I madly in love. The resolution is much better than previous models. Mixed with fun photography and editing apps it's a handy artists' workhorse. This was photographed with Camera+ and then edited in Instagram. You can find me on Instagram by the name of HeyVickie. 

Thanks for dropping by to my studio "virtually". I'd have you over personally but this place is a mess! 

- Vickie


I'm not being paid by anybody for any of this. Just sayin'.  

Where The Magic Might Be Under That Thing Over There

You can ask me where anything is in this mess and I can pinpoint it with amazing accuracy. Click the image and go see it at flickr. I made notes on it so you know what all this junk is. Mostly it is stuff that I just have not put away from the studio having to be downstairs for a while. Mr. M just brought most of it back up here for me today. That is the only reason anything is organized in little containers like this. :)

I'm posting this frightening look into my studio for the Shopping Our Stash (SOS) Challenge.

Clearly I have a stash. A big one. Please do not alert the fire department. The challenge is to start using up the untouched, virgin supplies I have been saving for "that perfect project". You know, that one? Right!

SOS is hosting a weekly challenge starting May 24th. Right now they are kicking it off with a Kick-Off Open House and showing our stash or studio spaces. There's some blog candy giveaway going on for showing us your studio or stash!

My Twitter buddies Leslie, The Crooked Stamper and Lisa from PaperGrace Designs are part of the SOS Crew. They are very talented paper artists and I am humbled to even enter a challenge they are doing as well. So I already know I ain't gonna win (unless they have a messiest award). :)

Click for a bunch of notes on this photo at flickr

Why do I have such a stash? Sometimes the supplies I buy are too pretty to mess up. Little embellishments, sparklies, fancy little doo dads... Oh, shiny! They are too pretty to be used on my trashy work, right?

Do you catch yourself saying that in your head? I do. It's a buzz killer. Let's stoppit. Ok?

Now I give myself permission to mess up create beauty with the fancy doo dads and sparkly things! I'm going to break into the expensive Distress Crackle Paint, the big sheets of expensive handmade paper (gasp!), and the other paper. Oh, the paper. It's a real problem. I have no reason at all to buy any new paper. Or more old paper for that matter.

So off to the stash!! Use it up! Make room for more stash! Er... I mean make room for spaciousness in your studio!

- Vickie

Oh, What A Mess!

Click to see it bigger with notes over at flickr

OK. I’ll be the first to admit I am a total slob in my studio. I do not have a “neat gene” at all. I like all my tools to be within arms reach. So it piles up around me. Not too good at putting things away when I’m done with them! I might need it again in another minute! It displeases me to have to get up from what I’m doing to get something for my current project. It’s disruptive. So I have this eternal mess.

It’s an inspiring mess, though. I love to sit and look at the little bits of paper left behind and how they mix with other paper around them. This is a source of design inspiration for me. It keeps my eyes busy and my brain going. I simply cannot work with a clean and organized work table. I’ve tried. It totally freaks me out.

My hunny calls the studio “The Fire Hazard”. I’m too embarrassed to show you the rest of it, to be honest. It’s really just more of the same from the work table, just spread out over a 10’ x 15’ room. Ugh. I cringe when people say, “Hey, can I stop by the studio and see your work?” Sure thing… if you can even walk into it! Welcome to the mess!

Not helping is the fact that I am a paper freak and collect it like it is gold. I have lofty plans to use it in collage work. But working on the size canvases I do (on small dominoes) not much of this paper collection gets used up. A domino maybe uses up 1.5 square inches of paper.

I would love it if you shared a photo of your studio. I like to see how other artists work. It’s very interesting to me. So please share!