The Messy Desk Issue

I am a not much recovered messy person. Let me be the first to admit it – I am a slob. The agreement when we moved here was the craft stuff would mostly live in my studio area which has PLENTY of storage space for everything I do so far. Neither of us being the most organized neat people meant we laid down the ground rules first. And for the most part, it’s worked great. We are both far neater and more organized now than we’ve ever been.

Still, by the end of a busy season my work table looks like it exploded in random clay. This is about 13-15 pounds of scraps of varying degrees of usefulness. I did scrape it up from the rest of the table! Now to finish turning it into slabs and sheets for neater storage. The other parts – nice cane ends, segments from bead making – will ALL get used or converted to sheets of clay designs before they get too much messier. There’s my goal.

In the chaos there is always something on the go and here are some small pieces made with the scraps – marbly beads and lots of beads, buttons, pens and pins made from a variation on Tonja Lederman’s Scrap Mokume Gane technique. They look a little crazy but the effect is lovely.

The little critters there are some custom ornaments for a friends kids. The group is affectionately called the Zoo Crew. They need some Christmassy details added then they too join the pile to bake. In the foreground are a whole mess of flower beads waiting to be shaped.

The other work stations in my office are in similar condition though with less interesting projects on them. I worry less about how messy it looks nowadays because it cycles quickly. It was scarier when the messes were weeks or months or years old. Now, it rotates often as items are finished, sorted and mailed out or put away.

By the way? I still want to get a white or light coloured clay table simply so that I can take better pictures on it. The blue countertop works well but makes for awful pics!