Welcome to Studio Saturday! Each week one of our contributors gives you a
sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a
related question of our readers and hope you’ll leave comments! As an
incentive we offer a free prize each week to bribe you to use that
keyboard.
The following week we choose a random winner.
sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a
related question of our readers and hope you’ll leave comments! As an
incentive we offer a free prize each week to bribe you to use that
keyboard.
The following week we choose a random winner.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This week we visit the studio of
Marie-Noel Voyer-Cramp of Skye Jewels
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This week’s winner is CRAFTYHOPE! Congratulations! You have won win a ceramic pendant and bead bundle from Gaea Handmade! Send Gaea an Email with your address and she will get your prize out to you soon!
I have been asked so often to see my studio, I figured this was the perfect time and the perfect place!
So Here it is!
I can’t begin to tell you how hard it was to get this photo, getting the angle right and the placement for the camera… The space is what you might call “small” or “petite” lol but you get the idea.
This room has dual purpose. I am first and foremost a jewelry designer and I am also an avid scrapbooker. At least I used to be… funny how beads have taken over my life and left little time to create with paper.
I spend about a week getting clean enough for pictures! Now it will be a challenge to keep it usable so I don’t end up working like this…
…again!
Yup! You are seeing this right! When I run out of room on my work benches I end up working on the floor. I can’t help it! I NEED to be surrounded by beads to be able to fully feel the inspiration take over! Those are my knees…ouch! I am getting too old to work like this. Maybe someday I will have a better space to work in.
Where do you end up working that is out of the ordinary? Do your beads take over and push you out of your studio or are you a meticulous artisan?
Leave a comment answering any of these questions and you will be entered for a chance to win an assortment of Skye Jewels wooden pendants selected especially for you, for your jewelry designs!
Photo Credits for the studio photos go to Angela Durocher
Thanks for stopping by…
Marie
riorita
March 24, 2012 at 9:26 amNice and cozy little place you've got there! Looks like you had to climb a ladder to get this angle.
moonlitfantaseas
March 24, 2012 at 10:48 amright now I am beading from my chair in the living room, because my beading room is in a shambles dut to work being done on my poor old houses foundation, everything is pushed to the front of the room……..and will be that way probably till the end of summer…….and no I am not meticulous…..creativity is a messy process!
Judy H in NC
March 24, 2012 at 11:55 amI actually wind up taking my beads to work and doing beadwork between phone calls (reservations agent). Since a lot of my work is beading costumes, this works out just fine. And my co-workers always stop and admire.
JeannieK
March 24, 2012 at 12:21 pmOh Sista I feel ya. I do the same thing and work on the floor and sometimes end up in the hallway. I would call that meticulous, wouldn't you?
Roberta
March 24, 2012 at 12:44 pmI think I finally found someone with a smaller studio than mine. You do have to be super organized don't you? I, unfortunately, am not.
Alice
March 24, 2012 at 12:59 pmEventhough your studio is petite, I love the cheery colors and that everything has it's place there.
My studio is actually our dining room. The dining table is where I work,label,package,keep files etc. So you can imagine how cluttered it is. Many times I'll be down on the floor, just like you, sorting through my beads, trying out different designs etc. One of these days I hope to have a real studio.
Thanks for sharing yours with us!
Congratulations to Hope!
Patti Van
March 24, 2012 at 12:59 pmWOW! It certainly looks organized to me! Even your ribbons are organized!!! And that picture of you on your knees on the floor with the beads could have been me! I believe that is standard practice! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Lynda
March 24, 2012 at 1:15 pmThe kitchen counter was my first bead space and my supplies were always so neat and tidy because I always had to clean everything up so I could make dinner. It all fit into a rolling cart. But as things got going in my business, I took over a spare bedroom and now I'm sorry to say it's a bit of a mess, because I don't have the daily need to clean off the work table to prepare the meals. Skye Jewels studio gives me inspiration to get organized! Thanks for the post.
Beaditi
March 24, 2012 at 1:40 pmHi Marie – love your studio space! Its vibrant and cozy…
I just tend to enjoy the sun and flora fauna around me…often take my stuff a garden outdoors and handcraft my jewels.
So yes, this does make me meticulous because i cant carry it all out!
The wooden beads are a beauty – love the earth tones and rustic feel…
Thanks,
Beaditi on Etsy
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Beaditi
Beaditi
March 24, 2012 at 1:40 pmHi Marie – love your studio space! Its vibrant and cozy…
I just tend to enjoy the sun and flora fauna around me…often take my stuff a garden outdoors and handcraft my jewels.
So yes, this does make me meticulous because i cant carry it all out!
The wooden beads are a beauty – love the earth tones and rustic feel…
Thanks,
Beaditi on Etsy
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Beaditi
KayzKreationz
March 24, 2012 at 1:49 pmI don't really have a studio for my beads. I do for my glass, but it is so disorganized right now I couldn't get anything else in there. It's also away from the house and I usually end up beading in the house in the evenings, so I end up spreading everything out on my dining room table and then working on a dinner tray in my love seat. A little uncomfortable at times and not very much room, but I enjoy it.
Spirited Earth
March 24, 2012 at 2:04 pmMarie,thanks for sharing a view of your studio..it's lovely..
Kristi
March 24, 2012 at 2:31 pmMy craft area is currently a corner of the living room, so I have to keep it *generally* clean. But I have been know to pack *some* beads to take on vacations, and fishing trips.
JJoy
March 24, 2012 at 2:32 pmYour space is small (like mine) but well-organized (not like mine)…thanks for sharing some great ideas, as I'm in the process of redoing my studio. Love your work, and would love to be the winner of these beautiful pieces!
Sabine
March 24, 2012 at 2:40 pm"meticulous artisan?" I would love if that were me! No, I really frustrate my husband because I be everywhere. Right now, I am restringing pearls and beads for a high end jewelry store. Usually, this happens after dinner and I am sitting on the couch with a little table in front of me. I also love to bead in the car on trips, because the lighting is so good!
Ann
http://mycriticaleye.com
Heidi
March 24, 2012 at 3:09 pmI love your studio. I too have commandeered a small bedroom for my crafting needs, though I don't create on a large scale. Even so, I find myself going out into the dining room, spilling over into the kitchen, bedroom or out on the screened porch. Like you the creative juice seem to flow better when everything it out and I can see it all at once, but that leaves little room to actually assemble things. Great post!
Rebekah
March 24, 2012 at 3:15 pmI love your little space, though I can see it wouldn't take much for it to become overcrowded! I'm a bit of a neat freak, but when it comes to beads, I have a tendency to make a horrendous mess and I'm constantly running out of space and finishing projects on the floor too! LOL
Saturday Sequins
March 24, 2012 at 3:47 pmMarie,
Your studio may be petite, but it looks cozy, and I love the way you organized it!
My studio tends to be a mess with piles of beads and sequins everywhere, so I end up working on the couch. I've worked on the floor, too. 🙂
Maneki
March 24, 2012 at 4:23 pmAh, the work space: a place that mysteriously seems to accumulate beads, tools, supplies and odds and ends like the space under the sofa accumulate dust rats…
I do clean up my worktables every now and then, but often it doesn't make much difference as whatever free space there was soon becomes occupied by something. So more often than not I just clear a small space, large enough to be able to work with, and leave the rest of the creative chaos as it is. (It's not a mess, it's a vital, inspiring creative chaos, of cause!)
I have what we might call a studio, our bead room. I say 'our' as I share it with my sis. My sis who's too lazy to tidy up and all too often just throws in some bags full of stuff that she doesn't have time to put away or that are in the way in the room she had them in previously….
Sharing space can be fun. You can work in the same room, seperately but still without feeling lonely all the time. Chattin, listening to music and joking while working can be useful when doing some boring and tedious but neccessary tasks. But it also means not just dealing with your own mess, but with someone else's too! And to tolerate that someone has other ideas about how tidy the workspace should be etc. It can escalate into conflicts if you don't have the same ideas about who should tidy up and when a mess have gone too far. Being sisters makes it also somewhat different than sharing space with a friend or colleague. In some ways better, but in others worse!
I know not to nag on my sis as that only makes things worse, makes he resist as a stubborn, protesting kid. So I wait, wade through her rubble, try to keep my own spaces clear enough to work in — or stay in my bed: as a beader I can often work everywhere, not being restricted to a workbench or proper work area (as when I need to use a torch or pound metal). I'm glad my hobby doesn't require I must work in the bead room or sharing it with my sis would probably drive me mad at times! (But to be fair, I also enjoy having a joint work area many times — when the mess isn't beyond coping as it is right now — we have fun and being two can be the push you need to sit down and do something at times when you don't have anything else spurring you on.)
Erin S
March 24, 2012 at 4:28 pmis there such a thing as a "meticulous artisan?" I think that's an oxymoron. My work spills over from my work table to the counter tops. And occasionally onto my chair. The floor is probably next. 🙂
Karen Williams
March 24, 2012 at 4:38 pmI'm like you in that I love to have everything spread out around me as I work! My cutting table is typically covered in a rainbow of beads so I can 'see' everything, and my working table isn't much better.
I'll often bring beading home and work curled up on my couch. My cat sits in my lap, and my beading tray sits on top of my cat. And everyone is quite happy. 🙂
Mags
March 24, 2012 at 4:48 pmI AM too old to kneel on the floor, but I also need to have many bead mats on the large working table and a lot of beads and metal findings all over them. And I end up searching 'the exact piece or bead' under all that stuff 😀
I do have a lot of boxes for my beads but really, they don't shout from there, I have to see them, all!
Louise
March 24, 2012 at 5:47 pmTrès joli ce petit coin Marie. De plus je trouve très romantique tes créations sur bois.
Vanessa
March 24, 2012 at 6:49 pmThanks for showing us your studio! I recently moved so I don’t have a real work space. The projects usually start on the kitchen table and soon take over the entire house. (Im trying to stay as organized as possible until I set up my studio.)
Anonymous
March 24, 2012 at 7:01 pmMy poor, cluttered dining room table is my "studio". And if I don't have enough space to work there, I will move to the top of my bed so I can lay out ALL the beads I have so I won't miss ONE bead to choose from.
Lisa
[email protected]
Heather
March 24, 2012 at 7:14 pmWhat a cute space! I have a corner of the garage set up for lampworking, then a table in the bedroom set up with clay and beads that always gets moved out to the dining room and takes over everything til we have company over and I put it all away.
kristibasket
March 24, 2012 at 7:16 pmMarie, this looks awesome! I hope to get a work space in tact before the kids get out of school…it's coming up quick, they are out by May 23! Thanks for the inspiration!!
Donna Bradley
March 24, 2012 at 7:41 pmI love your studio! It may be small, but it looks like you have a section for each type of work you're doing. It looks very cozy. Right now I share a space in what I refer to as my grandson's bedroom. My work table gets piled up pretty quickly, and soon I'm using his bed. Which means when he comes to stay, I have to make room. It's nice to a peek at where all your beautiful creations come from!
RockMeGently
March 24, 2012 at 7:45 pmI see one thing missing, a swivel chair! What an amazing studio, you've utilized every nook & cranny! Shelving for your paints, ribbons, ect! I love having everything visible and within reach, too! I used take over the dining table, playing bead tray shuffle, just so they were all laid before me. Fortunately, now I have a big table in my studio(spare bedroom)for the spread! Thanks for sharing your homefront!
Skye
March 24, 2012 at 8:31 pmI do most of my beading in front of the computer ( i have a keyboard that tucks away beneath the desk so I don;t continually loose beads between the keys 😉 ) . I usually either have music or an audio book playing while I work.
Manola Maria
March 24, 2012 at 8:51 pmWell, for the time being I'm beading on our dining room table. My bead stash is still rather poor so I haven't had problems organising it until now.
Nonetheless there is a small room in our house used as a guest room – home office, which I'm thinking of organising it into a studio. I'm going to need one soon.
I've always enjoyed taking sneak peeks on other peoples studios.So many ideas! It must be like paradise working surrounded by so many beads. I like beads, what can I say!!!
Valerie
March 24, 2012 at 10:56 pmOh, I love your little studio. It's very cheery and organized! I too have a scrapbooking addiction in addition to glass and beadwork. My space can easily get overwhelmed and out of control! Sometimes in the midst of a creative streak, it's just easier to find a new place to work (such as the floor) rather than clean up my workspace!!
Thanks for sharing your studio with us.
Valerie
Anonymous
March 24, 2012 at 11:04 pmMy beads are in a box next to the desk where I bead, a plank across two filing cabinets. The desk also functions as nightstand, computer and accessories surface and makeup table. When the box gets too full I take out what I'm not using and store it.
You can see I really need more beads.
Rita
[email protected]
Off the Beadin' Path
March 24, 2012 at 11:41 pmEnjoyed seeing your "cozy" studio! I love the floor, so much space! I also make linked bracelets in the car and recently took a flat cake pan of beads with me to the couch (too ill to sit up in my studio chair). Made many memory wire pieces this way. Nice collection of pendants!
Carol Creech
March 25, 2012 at 12:28 amWhat a great space! Good that you at least have a small room to keep things in. I am currently cramming things in bins off to the side in the dining room and on my bookshelf to keep it out of the hands of my kids. 🙂 I end up spreading everything out over the kitchen table when I am working on a project. Thanks for the opportunity to win one of your pendants!
Carol
kimmykats
March 25, 2012 at 1:40 amI think the more space we would give ourselves we would mess up anyways—just think of it as a small reach when you need something!(my floor looks worse)
Lisa
March 25, 2012 at 1:45 amI love your studio, all neat and organized! I also used to love getting on the floor, but the back and knees will not let me anymore. I have claimed a small corner in what used to be an L-shaped bedroom. We built a walk-in closet in there and the area that remained, my daughter and I claimed as ours. She paints and I bead! The bead area is not yet organized, but yours is certainly inspiring me to get in there and get busy! In the meantime, I spread it out on the kitchen counter. There is wonderful light in my kitchen!
Firefly Visions
March 25, 2012 at 2:22 amI am close to having no room at my beading table. To be honest, my space does not inspire me but it was the only area where there was room in my teeny house. I usually end up beading in the bedroom or my computer desk.
Lisa Cone - Inspired Adornments
March 25, 2012 at 5:28 amCute studio! I have a small but nice (and messy) place to work but my favorite place to do putting-together work is in BED! It really is the stupidest place to work but it is so comfy! I really should've been a knitter.
LynzCraftz
March 25, 2012 at 12:13 pmYep looks about the size of my studio, but mines not nearly as organized…lol I try to stay in my studio & that becomes the problem, my hubby has his own chair in my studio, my grandson want to come "get into G.G.'s stuff" as he calls it, & my son is always wanting on my computer at the wrong time(it's also in my studio). If something doesn't change soon I think I'll move the studio to the living room & let them have it…lol
Linda Landig
March 25, 2012 at 1:47 pmI loved seeing your studio and I'm consoled that mine is not the only one with beady clutter. I often spill out into the living room. There are beads scattered on the coffee table. I often bead sitting on the reclinder with one of those lap desks.
ForeverInTransition
March 25, 2012 at 1:56 pmOh Wow! Thanks so much for sharing photos of your space. I have such a small space to work with as well, and I haven't quite figured out how to make it work, yet.
Anonymous
March 25, 2012 at 2:45 pmI turned a walk-in closet into my studio. I purchased a very expensive bead chest to put all of my treasures in and I still spill over to the dining room table, all of the living room end tables, every spare closet in the house, the spare bedroom, and every empty drawer. Friends say I they are going to have an 'intervention'. Our oldest daughter leaves for college in the fall and she knows I am keeping an eye on her bedroom!
'Spill all your beads on the floor and let me roll in them'
Cathy Selzer
[email protected]
Elaine
March 25, 2012 at 3:29 pmIt's been a while since I sat on the floor and worked – though I used to do that when I started, sit in the living room and watch tv while I made pieces – but I am pretty sure I have worked at every table I've ever owned. And almost every friend and family member's table. And the tables at every coffee place I've gone to more than once and most of the libraries in two cities.
For the clay stuff, because it picks up dirt and mess, I do most of my work in my studio at my studio tables. In my previous apartment though, that meant anywhere in the apartment. Here I have a room set aside.
mlsjewel
March 25, 2012 at 4:20 pmLove your space. If I got on my knees like you do, I'd never get up!!! Getting old is not for sissies!!
I have a smaaaaalll bedroom that I use as 'My Studio". Beads are in plastic containers that I got at Wal Mart for 1.97 and 2.97. They are arranged by type: round, bicone etc.
And did I say that I work in confusion and madness? No one is going to claim that I am sane. lol
I find if everything is neat and tidy I get into a funk and can't create.
TesoriTrovati
March 25, 2012 at 5:05 pmWhat a great little space! I love the fresh green color on the walls. I chuckle at your bit about getting the studio clean enough to photograph. Mine looks like the crew of Bead Hoarders is about to bust through the doors. (If that were a real show I am convinced that I would be on it!) I am like you in needing to surround myself with beads and things. If I can't see them I don't use them and then I buy more! I used to sit on my floor and bead at the coffee table, but that got too hard on these old knees. I have a very nice L-shaped desk and several tables and really nice cushy rolling chairs! So cool to see where you create. Someone will be very lucky indeed to win all these goodies from Miss Marie! Enjoy the day!
Erin
Katina
March 25, 2012 at 6:15 pmI love your little studio! As for where I do my crafting, I don't have any place unusual but I don't get to work at my worktable either. It's always full of stuff I'm trying to match up for projects. And my secondary table in the dining room is also full of stuff, ongoing projects and a sewing machine, with all its related stuff. So mostly I work while sitting in the recliner with a cat on my lap!!
Leah Curtis
March 25, 2012 at 10:23 pmWhat a great space! Your studio is inspiring. I love how organised you are.
I don't have a studio, so I keep my stash/supplies portable. I have a large chocolate tin that I take across the country with me! Everything (well, mostly) is in little bags in side. When I bead, I sprawl them across a table and work as long as I can, then pack it all up again.
When everything is stored away, it doesn't take over my space, and I love having all my beads out. But when I do take them out properly, you won't be having dinner at this table 😉
Cindy
March 26, 2012 at 1:17 amThanks for sharing your creative space. I think it looks SO organized! I had to smile = I work on the floor as well! I seriously make my jewlery, more often than not, right on the floor. Your floor shot reminds me of mine!
Debras Dezinez
March 26, 2012 at 2:58 pmYou have a great little place ! Right now I have my studio in my bedroom and it sometimes spreads out into the living room where I spread out my bead boxes to see what can be used by my muse!! We are planning on buying a house so I can have my own studio I caqn't wait ! Thanks for the chance to win some of your beauties!
Cynthia
March 26, 2012 at 5:02 pmYour studio is small, but bright and cheerful! I have a small corner of the guest bedroom for my "studio". I started with an L-shaped desk, and occasionally used a folding table to hold the "overflow". Now the folding table is "permanent", and it's full of recent purchases, and items I can't fit into a catagory, to put away. If I put them away as "miscellaneous", I might never find them again!!
Luckily, any "guests" that might stay in the room understand my bead habit!!
Courtne
March 26, 2012 at 5:47 pmHi Marie, Love your blog by the way. My tiny little space defines the term 'unfortunate'. It's really unfortunate that I sit beside a furnace with a box of kitty litter behind me and a washer and dryer a few feet away. And it's unfortunate that I have to stand up to reach for some beads, bend down for others, and get under the table for yet more beads. I've become really creative in finding space, making space, and generally making it work for me. 'Cramped' just hits the tip of the iceberg form me. Oh, but at at least I get my laundry done.
Courtne
ckaycreations.blogspot.com
etsy.com/shop/Ckay111
Love, Yesterdays
March 26, 2012 at 7:51 pmLove this studio! What a great way to use such a small space. So many of us artists fight to create a creative space in a small space. Great jobb!
brigitte
March 26, 2012 at 11:22 pmyour studio looks perfect. mine is a mess so i am forced to work elsewhere in the house. i'm new to jewelry so finding the appropriate lighting is challenging. currently i do most of my beading in the kitchen. but i hope to have a space set up soon.
Klassy Joolz
March 27, 2012 at 5:30 amStudio space would be so wonderful. If only I had some…SIGH! I currently work on a small glass top kitchen table…and have to have beads everywhere when I work. I keep most everything in a rolling plastic storage container with several draws. Other beads in plastic storage containers as well. I'm pretty compact so when I have to clean up it is fairly easy.
One of these days I hope to have a studio/craft room…thanks for sharing yours!!!
swopemelmel
March 28, 2012 at 5:44 pmI can always be found like a kid on the floor at the coffee table. It really is my favorite way to work. [email protected]
Shaiha
March 30, 2012 at 10:02 pmI actually have quite a large space but it's not very well organized. Oh and I have to clean up my work space before I start a project.
Kim
May 29, 2012 at 11:47 pmI am so jealous seeing those stuffs for jewelry making plus scrapbooking. They are really organized-well even there's so much stuff. Thanks, I am inspired to organized mine same as yours.
Kim from chevalière homme argent