My Studio - wait...I have a studio??

Studio.  The very word conjures up images of great works of art....Monet in his "studio," Da Vinci in his "studio," or perhaps Henry Moore in his "studio."  Clearly, I cannot possibly have a studio.  I am not worthy!  When I first called my space by that name, it seemed to sound pretentious.  I am not so much an artist....rather a dabbler in the arts....spinning, felting, beading, a bit of sewing and occasionally a bit of drawing.  I looked up the word and its etymology, and found it to have come from the Italian for "a room for study."

Studying is something I can certainly say I have done....for years.  Kindergarten through twelfth grade makes 13 years of studying, then add in nearly 14 years of university, for a grand total of about 27 years of study.  What is studying, then?  Is it just learning facts or theories and being able to repeat them or apply them in tests and exams?  Does studying go beyond that which we learn in school?  Surely it should apply to anything we learn in earnest, whether that subject is a traditional school subject, or whether it's something less traditional and more practical or artistic.

After having come to the conclusion that my space was certainly one for study, and that it was also one in which things happened that one might call art, I decided perhaps it was not too pretentious, and that I was indeed permitted to call my space a studio.  It is not, at present, a finished studio.  In fact, it's quite far from that.  That said, it's the place to which I retreat when I need "down time" from the chaos of working on the other parts of the house.  It's a little bit of solace in the run of a day.  And now, it needs colour.

I've been spending some time sitting on my chair, just staring at my space.  I am one of those people who feels strongly affected by colours in a room.  I am not fond of white or off-white walls.  They seem cold and uninspiring to me.  For others, they can be calming and pleasant, but for me, they are stifling.  I need to feel the energy and warmth that colours bring to my world.  With that in mind, I've been trying to sort out how to proceed with the decorating of this area I call my studio.

I have two primary spaces that make up this area.  One is the spinning and sewing area, and the other shall be the felting, weaving, and "other stuff" area.

 This is the spinning area.  I love the sloped ceiling and the old hickory beam in the centre of the ceiling.  The window has a gorgeous view of the land surrounding me and I face it when I spin.  It's a bit chaotic at the moment because we haven't got all our closet space available yet so some extra stuff is being stored here for the time being.  On either side of the window, there are "cubby holes" about 3 feet to either side that will hold storage totes or boxes.  They also have the sloping ceilings.

This next picture is the wall to the left in the above picture.  It has my old desk that my parents bought me from Ikea when I entered Junior High school (grade 7 in Canada), which is now my sewing machine table and table for other crafts such as beading.  I also have a good-sized shelving unit which is destined for painting!  More on that in a minute.

This is a better view of the wall on the right hand side of the first picture.  As you can see, I have fibre storage cubbies for spinning fibre, also destined for painting.  You may also note that I seem to need more storage!

To the left of the spinning area (i.e. behind the wall you see in the above picture) is the larger area for felting and weaving and such.  As you see below, there is a sink on the left hand wall, which is currently also our bathroom sink since the bathroom has no sink.  The end wall at the back has more storage area.  That is another hickory post you can see on the left side.

On the wall opposite the sink I have made (perhaps creative?!) use of a baby crib left behind by the previous owner.  I was ready to throw it out when it occurred to me that it would hold a lot of fibre and yarn!  

The looms I have are set up in this area, ready to be warped for weaving.  To the far right you'll see an old Ikea drawer unit that holds all my craft papers, scissors, tape, paper crafts tools, wrapping paper and gift bags, and other such items.  The two windows let in a good amount of light and have a nice view out over the barns.

As you can see, though, from all of these pictures, the walls are desperately in need of paint.  The wallboard is in place, and taping/mudding has been mostly completed.  The floors need to be refinished.  The window frames need to be primed because the wood has knots, and then painted.  I don't want to paint the hickory beams or post.  What I do want, is energy!  The colours in this space have to reflect creativity, energy, liveliness, and warmth.  I will be painting all the walls, the shelving, the baby crib, and the trim.  One colour just won't be enough.  So, I've got some ideas...

Those, my friends, are "Claire Colours!"  Deep teal greens on the right, chartreuse and lime on the upper left, and deep raspberry/cranberry tones.  I've been playing around with these, trying to figure out how I want to proceed with the colour scheme for the studio areas.

These colours really speak to me the most.  I love the vibrancy of the greens juxtaposed with the deep, velvety purples.  I think this is likely to end up being an overall theme.  Since the rooms have so many wall surfaces - little sections of sloping ceiling, small nooks and areas with strange angles, I'd like to combine multiple greens in this family and do different parts of the walls in different greens.  I'm thinking I might draw some large purple and green spirals on the walls in strategic places.  Spirals exist widely in nature, showing up in diverse places such as seashells and flowers.  Triple spirals are also used in Celtic art, sometimes representing the Irish sea deity Manannan, sometimes the Pagan triple goddesses,  and sometimes the three realms of sea, land and sky.  These images are attractive to me and I'd like to incorporate triple spirals into my studio space.

I also love the deep teals of the ocean, combined with rich blue-red tones.  The light pink tones in these colour cards don't work for me, but I'm attracted to the deep, rich, saturated tones.

I need more time to think about how I want this space to look, but it's a very important space for me.  I find solace and peacefulness there, and I am anxious to have it finished, but only when I know it will be "right" for me.

I know I have a lot of creative minds who read this blog, so maybe some of you will have ideas or thoughts on how to proceed.  I'm open to most ideas at this point!  Please don't suggest painting the walls black (or white) because I'm not doing that, but maybe some of you will have ideas I haven't thought about.  The main focus points are:  energy, vibrancy, life, creativity, imagination, and sheep!