Setting Up Your Art Studio Or Craft Room Space

Discovering Your Art Studio Space Quirks

Once you have shlepped all your art supplies, products, materials, tables, easels etc into your new art space, where do you actually set up shop so you can work comfortably and productively? Each artist has to find out what their unique work vibe is.  Do you like working near windows? Are you an artist who prefers being "hidden" away from public view? "Do you want to paint near the air conditioner or further away? Are you storing paints to close to the sun? Take your time planning out where tables, paints, papers will go and respect the fact that your ideas about placement will keep changing as you begin to work more and more in a given space.

Tips About Art Studio Lighting

The long and the short of this blog is that you shouldn't get too bogged down with where things are going when you first move into a new art studio.  Additionally, be real careful about the kind and location of your lights. I'm still trying to remedy my overhead lighting. Talk to lighting experts and read up on this topic before setting up your lights. While I like the "warmth" of my track lighting in the in between season before the heat goes on,  it gets way too hot under all the lights I ambitiously installed. Yes I want  to be able to see what I  am doing and I also want to light up my gallery walls, but I so think I went way overboard.  So hot that you can fry a chicken is not the goal!  Explore your lighting very carefully.
               
Try hard to take some time to "live in" your space before declaring your interior design a done deal.

Visit my art studio website: http://www.cdiannezweig.com/


C. Dianne Zweig is the author of Hot Kitchen & Home Collectibles of the 30s, 40s, 50s and Hot Cottage Collectibles for Vintage Style Homes. She is also the Editor of I Antique Online an actively growing internet based resource community for people who buy, sell or collect antiques, collectibles and art. You can find Dianne’s fabulous retro and vintage kitchen, home and cottage collectibles at The Collinsville Antiques Company of New Hartford, CT, a 22,000 feet antique emporium with an in-house retro café. To read more articles by C. Dianne Zweig click on this link: C. Dianne Zweig’s Blog Kitsch ‘n Stuff Email me at dianne@cdiannezweig.com Visit my website, CDianneZweig.com Dianne is a member of: The American Society of Journalists and Authors The Society of Professional Journalists

Decorating Your Art Studio With Mid Century Collectibles And Furnishings

Organizing Your Art Studio With  A Mid Century Theme

My art studio at The Farmington Valley Arts Center in Avon, CT  reflects the Mid Century themes which inspire my Mixed Media abstract  collages and paintings. I like to surround myself with objects from the 1950s which carry through the design elements that I integrate into my work (hopefully).

Hunting For Collectibles For Your Art Studio

I hunt for collectibles in all the wrong (and right places).  I have my favorite Antique Malls and Junk shops that I periodically visit as well as snooping around Craigslist and other online sources.








Finding Bargains For Your Art Studio

The best place to find bargains is in a place that doesn't care to be sellling what you are looking for. For example, let's say a shop specializes in Victorian antiques but dabbles in a few other odds and ends. This might just be the place that you  actually find a quirky piece of pottery or decorative item  (which is out of place with the other itmes for sale)  but is just what you want and is not priced too high.

Look For Furnishings And Decor In Unexpected Places

Now it isn't always the case, but when a dealer comes across vintage items that they are not fond of or well versed on, they generally are happy to unload those items quicker. So you may actually do better finding what you are looking for in unexpected or even odd places. Some of my best finds arrived  this way.

The dealers who mostly carries collectibles with a Country kitchen theme may just have a funky vase  mixed in among the baskets. A collectibles dealer in Vermont who like Primitives is probably going to part with an Atomic era lamp for a better price  than the Mid Century dealer who has a shop in New York City.

There are no hard and fast rules here, but be open to finding what you are looking for all kinds of places and travel off the beaten path for real bargains.

Reader Input: Tell us what you have found in an unexpected place?  I  welcome your comments and feedback.

C. Dianne Zweig is the author of Hot Kitchen & Home Collectibles of the 30s, 40s, 50s and Hot Cottage Collectibles for Vintage Style Homes. She is also the Editor of I Antique Online an actively growing internet based resource community for people who buy, sell or collect antiques, collectibles and art. You can find Dianne’s fabulous retro and vintage kitchen, home and cottage collectibles at The Collinsville Antiques Company of New Hartford, CT, a 22,000 feet antique emporium with an in-house retro café. To read more articles by C. Dianne Zweig click on this link: C. Dianne Zweig’s Blog Kitsch ‘n Stuff Email me at dianne@cdiannezweig.com Visit my website, CDianneZweig.com Dianne is a member of: The American Society of Journalists and Authors The Society of Professional Journalists

Organizing Your Art Studio Brushes And Tools With Vintage Pressed Glass Vases

Storing Paint Brushes And Tools In Vintage Glass  Vases

Artists by nature are resourceful people. Anita Gangi Balkun, a studio artist at the Farmington Valley Arts Center in Avon, CT who lives in the world of installation art  uses old pressed glass flower vases to store her paint brushes and tools. The collection looks quite nice sitting on her window sill of her  art studio.

C. Dianne Zweig is the author of Hot Kitchen & Home Collectibles of the 30s, 40s, 50s and Hot Cottage Collectibles for Vintage Style Homes. She is also the Editor of I Antique Online an actively growing internet based resource community for people who buy, sell or collect antiques, collectibles and art. You can find Dianne’s fabulous retro and vintage kitchen, home and cottage collectibles at The Collinsville Antiques Company of New Hartford, CT, a 22,000 feet antique emporium with an in-house retro café. To read more articles by C. Dianne Zweig click on this link: C. Dianne Zweig’s Blog Kitsch ‘n Stuff Email me at dianne@cdiannezweig.com Visit my website, CDianneZweig.com Dianne is a member of: The American Society of Journalists and Authors The Society of Professional Journalists