Stations and Productivity

LEMONADE MAKING - HOT, PLEASE...

The unfortunate situation with the water pipe caused half the studio space to be packed up, moved aside and rearranged yesterday.


But I see a silver lining in all this disruption. I've decided that when it all goes back, I'm going to change how the soldering area is set up, and re-do the location for the kiln.


The other side of the studio was unaffected, but having to relocate the workstations on the soldering side made me appreciate how the other side is set up, with everything on rollers. Except for the tall metal shelving units, I can move all the other parts around easily.

So if I change gears from polymer clay to etched metal or dyed pearls, I can move everything to the walls and make space for another project.

I think of the different work areas as 'stations' - don't know why. I have a 'shipping' station where I put together the handmade boxes, do the labeling and sorting.



For working areas I have a 'baking' station where the polymer clay oven sits on a metal rolling shelf. There's my timer, to remind me to take things out promptly! DING! like an alarm clock. Makes me jump a foot sometimes when I'm not paying attention.

Those woven hot pads were made by my daughter when she was a child. Love 'em! And I use them all the time, they remind me of her.

I have a 'pounding' station where the metal is cut, filed, hammered, measured and stamped. Not necessarily in that order! That's a big thick slab of steel I only use for non-precious metals, I have a bench block for the silver.


There's a 'polishing' station for the buffing and sanding of the beads and tiles, to get that glossy look on them.

The basket behind the buffer is my backstop, to keep the beads from flying across the room if the buffer grabs them.

Somewhere in the studio is a heart that went zooming away, and with all the disruption and mess I'm just going to wait to try to find that little guy.

Today I hope will be more productive than yesterday, so I can get some plans worked out in my head. Some friends have sent me their brainstorms on things that might be good as images on the tiles and beads, and I want to try them out.

And I have some ideas to test, too.
Hope your day is sunny and fun. I'm headed up to the kitchen for more hot tea. With lemon...

Thanks for all the well-wishes and support. You all are the best!

Oh - one more thing - if you wanted to SEE THE FINAL RESULTS of the little poll that was on the left sidebar, pop to the bottom of the page to view what you preferred to see on the blog in 2009.