Musical chairs, er, horizontal surfaces for messes. Round and round we go...
Update, some 15 months later [sept2025]: Well, we've swapped out this table for one that's smaller, the sewing area is now the ‘Textile Studio’ because the bead/stringing has been moved up there, and I still can't keep up with the ephemera. Ah well;)
Update, oct2025: Well, I've spent the last three weeks, off and on, organizing said ephemera aka tidying up my office, mostly[1] so's I can more efficiently do the sort of journalling/mixed-media depicted here. So this archive/blast-from-the-past is actually sort of apropos...
After spending about two weeks, off and on, I more or less have made my sewing area a usable space again, which is a good thing, because I have a medium project with a soonish deadline and a (very) big project with (fortunately)a longish timeline.[2] But my office. Ugh. Part of the reason that's such a disaster is that the ephemera for mixedmedia (if you're an “artist”) or scrapbooking (if you're a crafting-type mom) has been piling up.
Ephemera sorting, circa Jun 2024.
I happen to be both, and the biggest difference is that craft stores provide the moms with a number of pre-packaged components (designed by...artists), whereas the “artists” are expected to do a bit more work find their own. But in both cases you collage bits of your day-to-day life. Problem is, in today's single-use heavy economies, that sort of paper piles up way faster than I can use it up, as even a very simple 5x8” layout takes 30–45 minutes to do.
This is basically a long-winded way of saying I moved the pile of stuff on my paper cutter (rendering it inaccessible and useless) onto our conference sized dining room table. I have until Sunday Night (friends & family) Dinner to clear it off, and both desks in the office are still 4–8" deep in stuff.
Plus, the garden still has 4’ weeds to clear out.
The studio's none too tidy either and we won't even mention the basement (gift decorating/photography) which among other places was the black hole that swallowed the kumi I was whining about the other day.
But some day I'll get caught up. Right? Right!?[3]
[1]I mean, I had to do financial inputs too, cuz I hate-hate-hate the doing-it-all-at-once slog in February/March for taxes, and having lots of surfaces makes sorting all that easier too...
[2]Very fortunately, I still haven't started it yet, and have no idea what the medium project was. Dry bags? we ended up buying them, after the first one failed.
[3]Haven't yet, as of Sept 2025, which is hardly a surprise...But a month later, Oct, I actually have hopes of finishing office, then textile area, then the lampworking studio...and then even the basement & attic. Will my desire for usable, comforting spaces outlast the drag of endless sorting/organizing with little art...? Have I, after 40+ years of being an adult, finally mastered enough skillz to achieve this rather basic goal?
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
