My Studio

First, my suggestion is to make a cup of tea.  After all, it is raining.  When is it better to sip hot, enticing, aromatic tea than when a tropical storm like Isaac is sending Lots of water your way?  My favorite is called Happy tea.  I found it on Amazon.com and liked both the name and the color of the can.  The tea itself is a warm orange, although it does not taste like oranges, but lemons and peaches.  For the truly decadent, slice a fresh peach and add two slices into the hot water. YUM.  Well, after all, I am a Georgia girl.  Even better,  peaches and honey. 

Add a couple of friends:

Almond

Oyster

...and it makes for one sweet cup of tea.   There is one more baby, Amelia, but she is camera shy and for the most part hides under the bed.   Almond has been with us for 16 wonderful years and one can see the wisdom in this stone-cold killers' eyes.  She weighs less than 5 pounds, but has been seen dragging home 5 foot long black snakes, large squirrels and many voles.  Let's just say she likes to hunt.  Oyster found us on vacation in Florida.  She had almost no hair and we could see all of her bones.  She ran over, sat on my feet and well, the rest is history.  You can always find her to my left on the desk, and she has a wonderful skill in always, no matter how she turns, or twists or rolls....she never ever misses the chance to hit the CAPS LOCK key.  REALLY. 

Some of you have asked to see pictures of my studio.  Finally unpacked and mostly re-organized, I tried to capture the essence of the space. 

This is my fire station.   I can solder, anneal, pickle, polish and generally make an unsightly mess on this old folding table.  I found a great old Peach crate for keeping files and hammers.  And yes, that is a drill press too, although for things of late, I find it more efficient to use my hand drill.

My drawing table has been flattened out and holds beads and assemblage parts that I am working on. I have storage containers, a mini stereo and a small television in the background.  This table was the hardest to pack and un-pack!  I like to keep lots of things loose on the top or in those small white dishes.  Those are actually sushi saucers for wasabi and soy sauce.  They make great bead holders, and the crisp white means I can see the colors very clearly.  I purchased these years ago at Pier One Imports.  I love getting inspired there.  I find all sorts of unusual objects that I use in unusual ways.  They even have a Pinterest page that has DIY, Fan ideas and ways to show off your ideas.  Can you say U-NEE-QU?   

And to the left of this table, I not so subtly swiped, is my husband's water color table which has lots of thin drawers down the middle, and a top that opens on sliders.  The top can go from 4 feet wide to 6 feet wide...and there are bead boxes ALL over it.

This is the Awesome work table that my new-to-woodworking-husband made this spring. It is measured and cut to just my height.  It is wonderful for for polishing and drilling with my hand piece.   The table top is very heavy which is great for pounding, forming and the oil rubbed finish is very smooth.  I love it!  Here is where I keep my punches, my vise, my Sizzix machine, cutter and dapping tools, and my hand piece. 

Here is another of my husband's brilliant ideas.  He took an old scrap of 2 X 4, trimmed and shaped to fit under the handles of my pliers collection.  He sanded it and lightly stained it too.   I'm not the only creative one here and it shows.

Well, my tea is gone, the cats are asleep and the old clock is chiming...time to get back to work!  I hope you enjoy your rainy day too.