Creative Spaces

I thought it would be interesting to share some workspaces of the lovely creative folk that I’ve been chatting to on folksy.com lately. Also wanted to share my workspaces too, I think it’s nice as a maker to be able to see where other makers work as well as buyers getting an insight into the life of the maker.

Thanks to everyone who took part. There is a wide variety of spaces, some tidy and some pretty messy (not just my words!)

Hope you enjoy seeing some wonderfully inspiring creative spaces. This is the first part of a two part feature, w/c 2 February i will feature another three makers, Bonita Keay, Hannah Pinnock and Momtaz Begum-Hossain.

I’ll start with my studio, tried to capture it so that you can see as much as possible. This is one end, the work end where all the ‘making’ takes place…..


And this is the other end, storage, sink and all that stuff that doesn’t have a home!



I’m also very lucky to have a stock room with a wall of shelves and lots of boxes of work packaged up for craft fairs. This is the tidy side!


This is my desk and pc where I spend my time blogging, researching, listing items on my online shops and generally stashing paper that doesn’t have a home.



Now moving onto some other creative people. First up is Anna of Half an acre. Anna designs and creates fabulous handmade wooden decorations and home accessories specifically to brighten up your home and to make you smile! Why not cheer up your walls with some hanging hand-painted decorations such as these fish?



Anna lives in West Sussex, UK surrounded by oak trees and farm smells. You can visit her website and an Etsy shop via these links. For UK shoppers the best place to buy is either direct from www.halfanacre.co.uk or via folksy which stocks a wider range.


This is Anna’s workspace.


Anna says “I try to keep my desk clear for painting but it gradually fills up with stuff and I end up painting with about 6″ of desk space to put the object on – It doesn’t matter how hard I try I still can’t paint something with the rest of the desk all clear. The sooner I accept this the sooner it will stop bothering me!” .

The next maker is Glenn of Steam Punk Glass -Handmade jewellery and sculptural beads like this lovely Amber Glass ‘Ghost’ Cala Drop Bead Pendant that can be purchased from folksy.com here.



Glenn lives in the Essex countryside in a small town near loads of fields and trees which are great inspiration. He uses a technique called ‘lampworking’ which involves directly heating rods of premium glass in a super-hot flame of propane and oxygen. Once it’s glowing and in a jam/treacle like consistency Glenn then winds, pushes, prods, rolls and generally plays around with the hot glass. Once he has finished sculpturing it into shape it’s popped into a microprocessor controlled kiln at around 520°C where they anneal to reduce the internal stresses that toughens the bead (a lot of cheap mass produced beads don’t do this). Most of the beads are formed onto a ‘mandrel’ – a thin steel rod coated in clay – which is removed to make the hole though the middle! You can read more on www.steampunkglass.com.



On the left is the oxygen converter, on the far right is a propane tank with (some) glass stored above it, and in the middle it all comes together at the torch which is much more dramatic when lit! This is a close up of the stored glass, the colours look fabulous.



So there is a little insight into a few very creative workspaces. Another three will be featuring on my blog this coming Monday.

4 Responses to Creative Spaces

  4. Reply
    Illusio Creative February 1, 2009 at 9:18 pm

    That was great, I am dead jealous. Everyones creative space looks so much cooler than mine, which I have to share with laundry, filing, a clothes rack, stuff for the car boot sale and other sundry crap!
    LOL..

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