Artist name: Sarajane Helm
Website: Polyclay.com
Blogs:
Creative Connections
Creative Connections - Poly Arts
Other websites:
Sarajane Helm’s Etsy Shop
Aunt Acid
At The Helm
Do you have a dedicated studio/artistic space?
Yes, I have several dedicated workspaces. My whole life is a dedicated work space. The tools are all in different places though and the trick is to be able to find them in good shape ready to be used when you need them.
Where is it located?
There is an upstairs bedroom that is the media room with photography setup, computer, files, magazines and books. Its also serves as our closet, because our closet is the music studio.
We annually dye at least once in the back yard, and bring the tables out for fabric painting. In the garage we have a long conference table for projects that require a little more area, we pour epoxy projects out there, paint or glue and do larger mosaics, and that’s where we are setting up stage for the puppet work we are doing right now. That’s a very complex Work In Progress that ties many efforts in many media together. A downstairs bedroom is the sewing/beading/polymer clay workshop.
Is it a large or small space?
Both bedrooms are average sized and have windows with good exposure. The closet is very large and it my husband’s personal dedicated work space though we share the others. He does the majority of the mosaic pieces and also the music.
We use that in our projects too, being very mixed media around here! We use half the two car garage for workspace, half for storage. And still we overflow into the laundry/small mosaic room and the dining room table for work areas. Any flat surface is a work/storage area.
What medium(s) do you work in? Do you have a separate area for each?
Paper, digital photos and graphics, textiles and fibers, polymer clay, beads, words and music—there are separate areas but when one project is “at the fore” then other things get moved around to make a bit of room. We shift as needed, and make multiple use of the same spaces.
What one word would you use to describe your studio?
UseFull
What do you think is the best feature of your studio?
It holds a fabulous collection of tools and supplies. And I get to use them! Thats so cool….
What would you change if you could?
I’d make enough steady income to free me to spend even more time making things. There’s a balancing act that every artist does in having enough energies for the doing of their art and also covering the daily life aspects. I’m very blessed in having many outlets for my creativity, and if I could Wave The Big Wand I’d grant me a Grant or an investor who’d provide the financially supportive aspects. Most small business fail because of under capitalization. Making money is an art too but I’d rather focus on making beads, or puppets; and success can take away from your time to make art as much as not having it does. Maybe more. I read a quote from an author that said “I love writing. Its the paperwork I hate.”
Can you share an organizational tip?
We inherited a CD/Video storage cabinet that makaes great use of a narrow space between the two closet doors. It now holds tools, cutters, and supplies in a small space but keeps them available.
Plastic milk crates with a shelf over them make for a LOT of storage space at the back of my work table, keeping small tools collected close at hand.
I put polymer clay canes (wrapped in Saran wrap) in recycled plastic containers and plastic drawer organizer baskets and group the canes by colors, then stack the containers in the milk cartons.
Put a couple of dowel rods through the holes in the milk crate’s sides and you have instant, inexpensive “shelves” for the containers.
A plate rack holds my matrix board tools from Ready Stamp so they are upright and not stacked. I hand scissors and fabric cutting tools from a cork board.
Most organizational things in my studio were recycled, or inexpensive. Plastic boxes and such go on sale frequently for a dollar or two. American Science and Surplus http://sciplus.com is a fantastic source of boxes and containers like the lunchboxes and watchpart boxes shown here.
Describe the usual state of your work table?
A mess, usually…I put things away when I need to clear off space to start something. But no matter how many square feet of workspace I have, it always comes down to less than a square foot of cleared area! I cover things with Saran wrap and with cloths because we have a lot of dust here in the foothills.
Does your work table face out into the room or toward the wall?
My tables usually face the wall. The sewing table faces the window. The garage table faces the mountain view when we open the door for light and air. It has temperature considerations though—its an early in the day workspace in the summer. When working, my visual focus comes down to a very small area, and the work areas are the only places in the house that I’m not as concerned about how the spaces look as they are not “displayed” in the same way, but rather collected for past or future use.
What’s one drawback of your studio/artistic space?
I wish it had twice the floor space and air conditioning! But as with purses, if I had a bigger one I’d likely just fill it up too.
Do you have any studio mascots?
Aunt Acid qualifies as a mascot, and certainly takes up her share of the rooms.
Do you have an idea wall or inspiration board?
I used to, and when we moved two years ago it just never got put back up.
Do you listen to music in your studio? What kind?
I listen to jazz, ambient music, my husband’s current projects or leave it quiet. Thelonius Monk played music I can work to pretty much anytime, but most often I’m brain-busy enough to prefer the quiet. If I’m writing, I cannot listen to anything with words.
Do you display your own work in your studio? Other artists’ work?
There are pieces of mine and of my husband Bryan and our sons, but not much other artists’ work, and I don’t know if “displayed” is what they are so much as “stored there for the moment”. We have art displayed throughout all the rest of the house. I don’t like empty walls.
What’s one quirk or unusual feature of your studio?
My fuzzy purple polka dot curtain is perhaps…unusual. It blocks the majority of the sunlight from a very bright window but leaves some light and air movement. It was a gift, and very purple and very fuzzy. I cover the raw clays most of time to keep it from UV exposure, and stray fuzz has not been a problem so far.
Any question of your own that you’d like to include:
ok, here’s mine–
There’s a line between availability of supplies and clutter. On which side of that line is your “work zone” and is it the same as your “comfort zone”?
I straighten up my studio once in a while, but have found that within a few days something always happens that requires piling even MORE stuff in there or getting stuff out of the boxes and going through them…I’m starting to believe its better not to create empty spaces in there. And yet–its nice to be able to move in there, which requires some parting of the piles. If it gets TOO messy I don’t want to go in the room; it’s over stimulating and visually intimidating. I try not to narrow the entrance area with too much stuff. But it sure is good to have a place that things can go and not be in the way of dinner! I probably straddle that line of available/clutter more often than not.
We’ve recently moved and one of the selling points was the partially unfinished basement. The space was used as workshop before we moved in, and the shelf and peg board were already up.
