Organising a small studio or home working space

My quest for re-organising my studio is complete (for now!).

Here's some pictures and tips, some of which can be applied across disciplines, as well as to mosaics. If you are just staring out, there some ideas for setting up a making area at home too ;)

 

1. Take-away tubs. I have reluctantly relinquished my love of glass jars for the more practical arrangement of plastic tubs. Please note,  I did not eat that many take-away's! I raided Poundland (dollar store) where you can get 10 for £1 (funny that...). The advantage of using these is to make use of every inch of space on the shelves and to make it much easier to see and reach all your stock.

 

To get over the fact that plastic is just not as nice or see-through as glass, I have stuck a sample tile on the front of each tub and this does the trick. Put the tiles in a colour order that is intuative for you as this helps a lot with searching and getting inspiration for combinations.

 

2. Storing stained glass - I would love to have enough studio space to construct shelves to store stained glass upright. But I haven't. That, coupled with the fact that I use a lot of cullet (offcuts), has got me storing the stuff in small and medium sized stacktable containers (of the more study kind - sourced from Ikea & pound shops).

Large sheets are stored upright in the larger tubs and I also use these to store broken china and stuff like that. It works and its safe (important if you are running classes or have little ones coming into your studio).

3. Making use of under table space - the two large tables I have in my studio are against walls and this gives me the chance to use the space underneath to store grout, tools and other equipment. Again, I use stackable plastic tubs (larger variety, these ones from IKEA). Students often ask for ideas on setting up a mosaic space at home and this is a good solution if you have no dedicated space yet. Keep all your materials in tubs under a table (in the kitchen / dining room) with a long table cloth to hide them when not in use.

4. Catching shards of glass - the other tip for those of you without a dedicated mosaic space  (from one of my lovely students, Silvia) is to mosaic standing up at the sink! Personally, I like working standing up. Doing so at the sink stops most of the shards flying onto the floor (though please don't send them down your plughole or you may need to call the drain man!). The other way of catching shards is to nip tiles into a clear ziplok bag or a large plastic tub turned on this side (there's a bit of a plastic tub theme going on here eh?!)

Talking of those small shards...I have a fantastic children's mosaic tutorial on using those bits that normally get thrown away coming in the next week...see you then ;)

Free toys - love and fun included!

This is Sally.

She was made with a lot of love by my little boy, Toby (with some help from Mummy).

Component parts: an empty salt tub, a lid, yoghurt pot, old insulating foil, insulating tape (she is very warm!) some pipe cleaners and good old British milk bottle tops from our doorstep milk bottle delivery (a great craft resource if there ever was one).

Fun was had. And when she was finished, he squealed with glee "Mummy, I have a new toy, I have a new toy to play with!"  Enough said...

More art from recycled stuff...

A few months back I did a post on a mosaic made almost entirely from recycled materials - a little bit of a passion of mine as I love the satisfaction of creating something beautiful from things that would otherwise be thrown away. (I was so pleased when the blog post was  published as an article in the last copy of Grout magazine, published by the British Association for Modern Mosaics!)

Here is another way that I use recycling in art making which, happily, also involves a trip to Ikea :) Have a look at this mosaic - Four Seasons - which I made in November (and sold in December).

The base and frame are actually the fronts of kitchen draws. The inner panel is a recess which makes a natural place to mosaic and the rest of the draw frames the finished work beautifully.

In this case, the inner panel is frosted glass which  added an extra special effect to the pieces, as it picks up light and reflects it through the gaps in the tiles. It looked so good I decided to leave the pieces ungrouted.

The back of the draw

These bases cost around £1.25 from Ikea's bargain basement - the stuff that is destined for the rubbish heap. You can also get end of line kitchen doors as well as draws and use them to make larger pieces.

I have a couple lined up which are clear glass doors with a frame - using stained glass as the mosaic material, there are some lovely effects to be had, particularly if they are hung as large sun catchers in windows. And as with all bright ideas, before you all think I am an original genius (which sometimes I am!), the maxim on originality that I hold to needs to be stated here "There is nothing new under the sun" by which I give credit to Brooks Tower, awesome mosaic artist (and king of Opus Sectile for you mosaic officionados).  His mosaic, Busy Signal, (which I am proud owner of) inspired this clever use of old kitchen draws as I swear, when I inspect it, that it is made on an old draw front, though hard to tell for sure as its a pretty solid bit of wood!

And if you are not up for mosaic making with old kitchen doors and draws, you can use them as frames for collage or stained glass painting too.  Let me know if you have any other ideas...

Art and recycling - such a wonderful combination.

Getting ready for Advent...

Advent, as you may know, is all about getting ready...so this post is about getting ready for getting ready! This is another one from the archive...a fantastic activity which we enjoyed so much as a family and the children still talk about it and remember it a year on. So, as its 2 weeks to December (and I am knee deep in exhibition prep!) here it is to give you ideas for  your preparations. So read below and then click on these follow up posts here and here to see how this nativity activity evolved.  Enjoy!

In Italy it is the custom to build a nativity scene in your home (often instead of a Christmas tree). I have vivid and fond childhood memories of the year my mum decided to build a really elaborate nativity, taking over a whole sideboard and built with a lot of love and creativity.


We have always had a small nativity under our tree but this year I have decided to make a proper nativity in one of our alcoves in the dining room. This is partly inspired by my mum's example and partly by a wonderful book from the Steiner Waldorf tradition that I dip into frequently, called "All Year Round".

So today I worked hard to build our nativity that has the theme "Mary's Journey". The heart of this is to help us all understand in a visual and enchanting way the story of the nativity and the ideas behind the season of advent (like waiting and preparation). This nativity is built up slowly over the four weeks of advent, adding more figures and props on each advent Sunday so that by the time Christmas eve comes, the setting (as our hearts) are ready for the arrival of the small, vulnerable baby who came to show us another way to live.

The beauty of this nativity is the shining pathway of stars for Mary to journey along. Each day, the children move Mary along the star path and each day a star is removed from the path and stuck to the sky. The little ones can see Christmas getting closer and closer as the path gets shorter and shorter (and the sky more sparkly!).


We started tonight with Isabella and Toby placing Mary (and a donkey - really an ox! - at Isabella's insistence) on the first star of the path. We then each added a stone to the scene. I will post photos each Sunday so you can see the nativity develop.

Before you imagine a scene of creative domestic bliss, you have to know that Mary was dropped on her head by Isabella and shattered beyond repair (she was really upset and took a lot of reassuring that she had done nothing wrong). We traipsed off in the rain to find another Mary. Then, in the midst of preparing food and being asked repeatedly to draw Mr Men, a star and jingle bells, I contorted myself into the strangest angles to tap nails and screws into the wood to hold up the blue material and fairy lights. The blood was running out of my arms, the nails kept falling out and the material flopping down when I stopped and put my head in my hands in frustration. Isabella noticed this, came up, stroked me and said "It's ok mummy, I know you can do it". So gorgeous and she was right. It was done, it looks lovely and I am excited about this creative addition to our Christmas.

Tree glitter pictures...from the archive

(We did this last Autumn and it was a lot of fun! Since the blog readership has grown a lot in the year, I thought I would post it again for you to see and have a go!)

The colours of spring and autumn totally captivate me - I stare and stare at a tree in blossom or covered in golden red leaves trying to imprint the image on my soul so that I can access that beauty once it goes, which invariably it does. On one level I find this rather gutting - like creating lots of masterpieces and then putting them on the ground to decay. I know this is the cycle of life but something in me still wants to cling to and preserve what I see.

At the moment, we have our lovely grape vine outside our dining room window, covered in leaves of the most luscious red / green / orange colours. I picked a whole bunch of them the other day and they sat in a bowl on our dining table, looking pretty and awaiting some use. As the days passed, they started to dry. It was then I had an 'aha' moment - an idea of how to use this beautiful colour and preserve something of the memory of autumn into the winter months.

A few minutes later, Isabella and I sat with our hands in the bowl and started crunching. (The noise, feeling and smell of this is highly recommended!). After a few crunches we had our very own "leaf glitter".

We then decided to do pictures of trees, using some twigs for the trunk and branches and a liberal sprinkling of our leaf glitter for the leaves - lo and behold we have captured something of the beauty of autumn for several more weeks at least!

 We will try doing it with different leaves soon - there are some beautiful yellows dropping from  a tree near our house at the moment. Oh, and the pinks from that bush near the park...

Mosaic hanging decorations and jewellery with recycled lids!

A recipe for children's jewellery and hanging decorations

Take some lids, the kind you would normally throw away (milk & juice bottle,  jam jar...)

Buy some tile adhesive (white creamy stuff, same consistency as peanut butter - pre-mixed in a tub from Pound / Dollar store or mix your own from powdered tile adhesive from DIY shop - both very cheap)

If you are going for hanging variety (tree decoration or necklace pendant), make two small holes in the lid. Use heated skewer for plastic lids (don't breathe in fumes) or a nail and hammer for metal lids.Then hook some wire through to form a loop.

Fill lid with creame tile adhesive.

Get some sparkly things - glass nuggets, beads, broken mosaic tiles (note, if you think you might get into doing mosaic projects, invest in some cheap tile nippers. They look like this...and it means you can use old bathroom tiles as well as mosaic tiles for lots of making fun!)

Stick your sparkly things into the tile adhesive. Make sure you embed tiles well, so they don't fall out.

Add appropriate hanging mechanism - sticky badge pins for brooches, ribbon for necklaces or string for hanging decorations (I use dental floss!)

Here's our variations on the theme :

A beady brooch - we used a bit of extra PVA/white glue to make sure the piles of beads stay in place

A little face brooch made with glass nugges and some broken tiles (but you can experiment with small beads for the pupils and lips, if you don't have tiles and nippers...)

Our tree hanging decoration, which doubles up as a pretty child's necklace.

Some more tree hangy things made with jam lids.

As you can see, we have done quite a few of these - a great way of recycling! Anyone who has followed this blog may have noticed that I have a thing about hanging pretty things in trees... especially good on bare branches for winter I think! And Christmas tree decor of course...

More tutorials for hanging decorations here and here.

Have fun making :)

Make cement foot prints and hand prints

This is a great activity which creates wonderful memories of babies & children's footprints at various stages of life - you can go to town and do the whole family, including your pets!

We have just done them as a memento of when Isabella started school. Her footprint will be a stepping stone. Toby's hand print was done in a smaller container and will become a paperweight. You can also do them as doorstops, bookends...whatever creative function for a lovingly adorned bit of concrete you can find! Think Christmas presents for grandparents, mother's and father's day etc..

A friend of mine left recesses in her patio especially for this and I recently went round and did them with her children (see pic at the top). They loved it and mum says it looks 'magical' having their footprints immortalised in the garden.

Don't be intimidated by concrete if you have never used it before...its easy peasy as you will see here.

What You Need

• Mortar (a mix of cement and fine sand) easily and cheaply available from DIY stores (I have tried this activity with both rapid set cement and cement adhesive (thinset) and it didn't work so well, so best avoided)
• Containers to cast the prints into. We used an old spring form baking tin (where the side can be loosened and removed) and an old Tupperware tub. You can use anything with sides (old take-away containers, foil trays, plant trays etc...)
• An old bucket to mix the mortar in
• Something to mix and smooth like a decorators palette knife - or a stick and an old credit card!
• WD40 or petroleum jelly (Vaseline) for lubricating the container 
• Water to hand
• Gloves (it can be a bit messy and cement can make sensitive skin sore)
• Mask (for pouring cement powder - you don't want to breathe it in)
• Things to decorate your stepping stone with if you wish (we, of course, used mosaic tiles)

What to do

1. Get everything ready and to hand as you need to work methodically.

2. Line the inside of your casting containers with WD40 or petroleum jelly so that you will be able to easily release the cast when it is dry.

3. Pour mortar powder into an old bucket (use your mask)and slowly mix until you get a peanut butter consistency.

4. Pour the mixture into your casting container, pressing and smoothing it with your palette knife / credit card (should take a couple of minutes) until it is level.

5. Clean your child's hand or foot (and put a bit of oil on to act as a barrier for sensitive skin).

6. Rather than letting your child step into the cement (which will be their instinct), hold their foot and gently (but firmly) push it in yourself. This will help make sure you use the right amount of pressure (if they step right in it will squish too much). Babies will have a tendency to grab the cement so its best to push the hand / foot in firmly and then remove it quickly. If you end up with too much squish or not enough of an impression, simply smooth the cement out and try again until you are happy with it. There is plenty of working time with the mortar mix.

 7. If you want, you can now decorate the cast. You can also add name and age using a pencil nib. If you are embedding objects into the cement, make sure you push them in firmly so that the surface doesn't have jagged edges and the pieces stay put when dry.

8. Cover it and leave it to dry for 2 weeks - it takes this long to cure. You can spray it occasionally with water to help the cement cure, especially if it is very hot.

9. After 2 weeks, turn the cast upside down - it should pop out of its container easily - and voila! If at this point, a bit  of decoration falls out, you can stick it back in its place with PVA (Weldbond) glue.

10. If you want to use your cast as a paperweight or doorstop, you can stick some felt underneath to make sure it doesn't scratch surfaces.

We also added some iridescent glitter glue into the imprints of ours - for a bit of extra sparkle. Why not do a stepping stone a year and create a great garden path? I wish I had started doing this when my two were babies, but its better late than never!

Fun, Farms & Crafternoons

Just a few pics of our last few days...

 Stems of the chard we harvested from our community farm where we go every Saturday to weed, water, pick and picnic! Amazing colours and very delicious, especially made with this recipe for Sicilan chard (being half Sicilian, rather appropriate too!).

I love this picture Isabella drew of me, herself and her brother. Such a treasure.

And this is us at the Mayfield Lavender fields - one of our favourite places.

We are carrying on with our Crafternoons...

Making a mosaic elephant...

Tracing round our bodies and decorating them!

And making fingerbobs (remember those?).

Hope you have had a good weekend...I'll be back in the middle of the week...hope to see you then!