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Post by Deleted on Nov 11, 2014 23:56:10 GMT
good luck! Get well soon! and most importantly get crafting!
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Post by adamantinedragon on Nov 12, 2014 6:02:20 GMT
Progress is actually being made. First a photo of the room as it is now. It doesn't really look that much better than the last photo, but it is a lot better. I've got everything off the floor except one box of paint and stuff that I've already more than half emptied. Which leads me to the second photo, which is a prototype paint caddy I knocked together out of a cheap dollar store foam core posterboard and hot glue. First the room: Now the paint caddy. This is just something I knocked together as a prototype. I mostly like how it turned out, but as you can see, I'm going to need more spots. My plan is to make it 8 wide instead of 6 and 5 high instead of 4. I'm going to put a divider in the middle to give it more strength and will cut the poster board so that it has the "foot" which keeps it from toppling over as part of the side instead of glued on. Anyway, here it is:
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Post by beetlewing on Nov 12, 2014 13:08:13 GMT
Looks pretty good! Something I've started doing whenever I use a paint color for the first time is wipe some on the cap of the bottle, even if it has a sticker. This not only makes locating bottles easier, it also gives me a swatch of exactly what shade it'll be when dry, since most acrylics dry darker.
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Post by adamantinedragon on Nov 12, 2014 16:18:55 GMT
Good idea beetlewing, I may adopt a similar practice. My paint caddy will have to help me keep my brush acrylics separate from my airbrush acrylics. I've learned the hard way that airbrushing with cheap acrylics can end up with a frustrating mess in your airbrush when they get clogged. It feels very nice to have my room at least organized enough that I can cut and glue again. It's been over a month since I started this, but life is what happens when we are busy making other plans...
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Post by dungeonmistress on Nov 14, 2014 6:15:05 GMT
Facing about eight months of physical therapy, but I've done this before, only with my right knee, so it's SOP. But I'll take that luck, beetlewing! Several things to overcome: How to make an attachment for my phone to mount on my mini tripod, how to upload a vid to YouTube, determining the length of vid that will upload and so on and so forth. One thing at a time, I suppose.
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Post by adamantinedragon on Nov 14, 2014 6:58:05 GMT
So, yeah, here is the "finished" paint caddy. I really, really think it turned out horribly, but it works. The materials: Half assembled Assembled: Loaded: It works, but I may take this same approach and make it out of wood.
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Post by ReliantLion on Nov 14, 2014 17:19:39 GMT
I often move my paints between two rooms. So I end up just carrying them, though sometimes I use a Sterylite box that is just a bit taller than the height of craft paint bottles. It's not big enough, of course, maybe I should get another.
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Post by dungeonmistress on Nov 14, 2014 18:58:28 GMT
Has crafting suddenly become a full contact sport? What's with all these injuries? Broken legs, broken ankles, blown ACL's! This is getting dangerous!
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Post by adamantinedragon on Nov 14, 2014 20:04:23 GMT
Heh, actually my wife's broken knee occurred at the craft store she works at (Michaels) when she collided with a customer who backed around a corner. In her case crafting was a full contact sport.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Nov 14, 2014 22:08:48 GMT
crafting is brutal sometimes... we go so fast from room to room... damn it door corner what the hell were you doing in my way ?!!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 15, 2014 3:06:24 GMT
Safety first people! Lol
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slurpy
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 197
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Post by slurpy on Nov 20, 2014 0:47:25 GMT
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Post by dungeonmistress on Nov 20, 2014 5:31:46 GMT
My craft area is in the corner of the kitchen where normally a breakfast nook would be. Along the east wall, I claim 9' enough space for my 6'x 2.5' craft table and my 3' wide computer desk, where I currently sit. Above the craft table are two large windows that let the morning sun light in. To my right is another large window which looks out into the patio area. Behind me, sits a narrow dresser, with a small shelf unit on top of it. Next to the dresser is a stack of 5 plastic drawer units purchased from discount stores at different times. snugged up against them is an old 3' wide x 18" tall library card catalog that I bought from an auction at the school where I used to work. On top of the catalog, sits a 3' wide x 6' tall Ikea style shelf. These items together with a cubby unit placed against the back, creates a peninsula/divider wall in the kitchen and defines my little craft space. There is no wall space to hang things, such as peg boards and such from, there are windows which let in lots of light and drafts. I have a 3' wide alley to move around in when I am back here, and I am always back here, it seems. I'm not complaining. I am very blessed that my husband was sweet enough to carve out this space for me in our tiny trailer (a-hem, "Mobile Home"). It is a little difficult to keep organized with so little space and all the different crafts that I do and have supplies for.
This is why I started this thread. I need help, inspiration and encouragement to make this space a usable, productive and comfortable place.
And, oh yeah! Here's an update on my knee. The doctors have decided that I will need surgery on the stupid thing after all. Apparently, they have found a little floaty bit in there that they say was the cause of the injury in the first place. So, an arthroscopy. They'll go in, remove the floaty bit and scrape away some of the calcium deposits causing my arthritis and then I get to do the physical therapy! I meet with the surgeon on Friday. I'll keep you all posted.
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Post by adamantinedragon on Nov 20, 2014 6:12:16 GMT
dungeonmistress, good luck with the knee. My wife is in her fourth week of physical therapy now, with at least two more weeks to go, maybe more. She's doing great with it, but it has been a long slog. We are so looking forward to her being able to get back to moving around without a leg brace.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Nov 20, 2014 19:01:18 GMT
well, a small space is really all we really need. maybe its just me who isn't enough into crafting... but i never make a real mess, it does adds up fast when im not cleaning it up though. but i'd say working on small spaces gives you a good opportunity of at least trying to manage your space. one thing i noticed is how people have tendencies of filling out each milimiters of the space they. and that is not on 2D space but 3D space. looking at all those who had rooms for this and how messy it all gotten, i'd say these people have much more then really needed.
that said, my work space has become so big compared to what it was, that i started another group on my friday DnD gaming. basically just 2 friends coming in after that friday game to continu gaming the night with me. i'll show pictures of it soon.
it started with my mother demolishing her computer desk. a very sturdy one, she is also in crafting and paint. more on paint then crafting, but shes the one who supplied me with my first glue gun, strings and the likes. with her desk being replaced by storage spaces and a new desk. my father kept the huge table top. he said someone may need it and its in good conditions so. when i saw it, i told my father, i'm taking it ! dont know how to put it, but im definitely taking it.
and thus i got myself a table top which weirdly fitted my craft space perfectly. even weirder, my actual table was actually large enough to support it. so it made my small yellow table literally, double long and 1 and a half wider. Dropped everything on the concrete wall space above it and tada !!! crafting zone remade with much more spaces. seriously, one shouldn't need more then what i use right now for crafting. even i right now have too much space. im not even using it entirely and actually have space for computer and the likes in there.
as mentionned, be showing you pictures soon.
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Post by adamantinedragon on Nov 20, 2014 19:53:06 GMT
DnDPaladin, I've made a few small changes in my room, but the photo below is still pretty close. My "crafting area" is the white table in the far corner. The desk on the left is my writing/work-at-home desk, and the small table to the right is my fly tying area. Which I suppose might qualify as "crafting" but my mental categorization files that firmly in the "fishing" section. How much room I need to craft depends greatly on what I have to work on. A small area is fine for small crafts, but sometimes I am working on pretty large items, and need enough space to be able to work on them without breaking them, or knocking things down all over that place. And while it is true that people tend to fill up whatever space they have available, in general more space is still better.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Nov 21, 2014 19:09:28 GMT
Adamantine, yes more space is still better, for them to fill it even more... look at the picture you showed, look at your craft desk... tell yourself... if you had only half of those compound you have... would that space really need to be bigger ?
thats what im saying and that picture of yours even though its tightly clean... is pretty much full of stuff even i dont have at home. seriously, the real question is, do you really need half of what you have ? its like those keeping people who keeps everything including thrash... they all say the same... "one day it'll serve me" of course it will, but only one time about 10 years from now. and by then you'll probably have found thousands of other stuff able to do the same thing. not saying you are like them. i'm using the extreme here just to show what i mean.
going much smaller... here at home, i got cardboard, cardstock, pipe cleaners, craft sticks, match sticks... my tools... and a lot of other stuff... and when i wanna do something i have everything to make it. yet... all of what i have... right now... fits in about 1/3rd of your boxes. Of course it depends on the craft as well... like you said, it depends on the size of what you craft... i'm crafting for DND strickly. i can understand some people crafting houses and dioramas and even dolls. so it really depends on the crafting itself... still i dont understand that urge to keep everything "just in case" not when you know that this single "just in case" can happen anywhere from now to 5 years and you know it will happen just once in a lifetime.
taking an idea... im gonna buy those hair rollers. but im not gonna buy hundreds of them just in case. i'll buy just what i need to make like 3-4 of them. i dont need more. and i think thats what takes people space the most. all those "just in case"
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slurpy
Paint Manipulator
Posts: 197
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Post by slurpy on Nov 21, 2014 20:46:15 GMT
I probably have about what's in that right corner stack, but it's more spread out amongst a few hobby organizers. I am pretty happy with how it is set up, I just would like a wall organizer for paint/WIPs and better lighting. And of course, if I did the verboten peg board, that would let me convert my tool storage to more materials storage.
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Post by adamantinedragon on Nov 21, 2014 21:07:32 GMT
Some details about all that stuff in those stacked containers, and some other stuff...
I don't "need" any of this stuff. It's not about "need" it's about what I like to do and things that make it easier to do it. For most of my gaming career I was much too focused on my career and my family to even have a "hobby desk", much less a room devoted to my own activities. And I was fine with that. When my daughter finally went off to college and my career situation had reached a point that I was pretty satisfied with how far up the ladder I had climbed, I started having more time and more interest in gaming and crafting. Up until then my entire gaming inventory fit on about half of one shelf of a standard bookcase. It was mostly books and a case filled with my dice and miniatures.
But eventually I decided I wanted to have a significant collection of miniatures. And that took me down the crafting path because I'm too cheap to spend a couple grand on miniatures alone. So I bought tools and materials to make my own. At first miniatures is all I really focused on, and that got me to about 2,000 usable miniatures, probably about 1/3 I made myself, and the rest purchased in bulk from eBay cheaply enough to make it worthwhile. Back then my collection had grown to about a dozen or so plastic containers, plus the gaming table I made which allowed me to project a map from below the table so that I could use my laptop to show my maps. For a couple of years I was pretty set with that.
Then I started thinking about maps and terrain. That meant more tools and more materials. I discovered Hirst Arts and started buying molds, which meant MORE materials and tools. Then I started making large terrain elements, like Inns and Keeps and caverns... Those had to be stored somewhere. And those Hirst Blocks started overflowing into shoeboxes to the point that I purchased some drawers you don't even see in this photo just to hold the Hirst blocks. (That file cabinet hiding under the left edge of the white table? It's top drawer is filled with Hirst Arts and custom molds I use to cast terrain building blocks.)
So to make a long story short, what you see is the buildup now of about five years of crafting everything from individual miniatures to large-scale terrain elements. Those plastic containers you see are almost entirely filled with miniatures that I use in my games. I have boxes full of elves, dwarves, orcs, giants, dragons.... Some of the containers hold Hirst blocks that I haven't sorted and stored in my drawers yet, just too lazy I suppose. And others hold the materials I use to craft with, mostly beads, craft sticks, pipe cleaners, etc. You don't even see the cardboard and foam core posterboard I have in the closet that is out of view to the right.
Is it too much? Is it too little? Well, it feels like too much when I am trying to clean and/or organize it. It feels like too little when I am looking for that one thing that would complete my current project and I realize I have flat run out of them.
It's all relative.
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Post by DnDPaladin on Nov 22, 2014 23:53:51 GMT
as i said it depends entirely on what you do... the reason im not doing huge terrain tiles is exactly because it takes way too much space. and thats my choice. im not saying you should stop doing what you like, im not saying you should throw away what you have. if ended up seen like that then it was not meant to. all i was saying is that, to me, and i'll repeat this one with emphasis on it, "TO ME" i dont need that much space. because i have to manage the transport that goes along with it.
to each its own, even more in crafting. but when i say what i said, above... i didn't have just you in mind. its a general comment on what i saw in photos up to ths point. and it happens that its not just in crafting that waht i mentionned happens... overall thats human philosophy right there... get more stuff over and over. my father does it, my brother does it, my whole familly does it, my friends does it. and by your post, even you do it.
this is why i agreed that more space is always better. but im also always trying to get an answer to the question... how much is enough ? for me, im not feeling right when the answer i get is... never have enough ! but thats my own philosophy, all fine if yours differs.
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