Lately I’ve been decorating my non-existent studio. In my mind, it’s quite a darling space-high ceilings, white walls I can decorate with bold-colored posters and framed fabrics, huge windows that let in lots of natural light, and with enough room to decoratively display my growing collection of vintage sewing machines and typewriters. And though this space has yet to be discovered (by me, at least – let me know if you’ve seen it!), I’ve strangely been “gathering” items to go in it. A poster from the London Design Museum. A drafting table from a friend’s sidewalk sale. My pop-art Frida prints. The vintage globe from eBay. The mica lampshade from Florida (I love lamp?)…
Oh, a girl can dream…but for now, I make do using the floor of our small apartment, swapping out my laptop from our shared desk to make room for the sewing machine on the occasion that there’s a pair of pants to hem or a T-shirt to refashion!
What does your dream studio look like? And ooh, let’s make this desert-island-y: If you were stranded in your magnificent design/work studio, what three items would you have with you?
[ Posted on June 12th, 2008 ]
I’d have to have a radio (with the White Stripes in it preferably), scissors and my friend Emma who is extremely crafty.
My DREAM studio is a light glossy hardwood floor, with tall red walls..
Three Things:
needle
thread
box of a thousand tshirts
Oooh, I like!
My dream studio would just be a huge room with hardwood floors, high ceilings, and, like you said, big windows to let in natural light. I wouldn’t use it just for T-shirt surgery either–it’d also be for painting, music, yoga, and writing poetry, and I’d have all the accoutrements for all of those activities in this room, to be wheeled into a storage closet whenever I didn’t need them. The room would be decorated with my artwork and poetry, and I’d get my massive Ani Difranco poster framed, and use her as a focal point, because I refuse to ruin the poster by putting Scotch tape or sticky tack on the corners.
As for the three things on a deserted island, I’d pick a huge box of T-shirts, my sewing kit (which includes needles, thread, scissors, safety pins, and chalk), and Megan, so she could tell me how to sew/weave/tie/whatever all of those T-shirts into a bridge to safety…….I couldn’t do it by myself, because that’s at least a level five project, right?
Anyway, on a completely unrelated note, it seems like Christmas is starting WAY too early this year (the art-print store where I work has had Christmas stuff up since early August), and so, this whole DIY craze has gotten me thinking about Buy Nothing Day, which is sometime in November or early December. Who else here thinks Buy Nothing Day would be a good day for T-shirt surgery?
You know, I met someone recently who’s working on weaving and knotting a T-shirt hammock! I think that would be a great project for a desert island — I asked him to send me photos as soon as he’s done.
See, Megan, that’s funny, because I was kidding, but now I can totally see you and your friend adapting that hammock to make a suspension bridge to get off the desert island, or maybe stretching the T-shirt fabric over some kind of frame to make a hang glider.