Hi First name / there,
When I describe my workspace, that's exactly the word I use: workspace.
It's not wrong. While working, I'm mostly surrounded by what might be considered average workspace items: a desk, an office chair, a computer, shelves with helpful reference books – and a pretty awesome collection of colourful notebooks, papers, pens, and crafty supplies if I do say so myself.
In the past, I've felt a fair amount of hesitation in calling my workspace by any other name. For reasons that no longer make sense to me, I've been careful not to, in my mind … overstep … in my workspace-related labelling.
Then I read a short piece in which the writer referred to her workspace as a “small craft studio". It sounded so lovely, creative, and delightfully fruitful.
I wondered, what if I called my workspace a studio?
Broadly speaking, I've always understood a studio to be the place where creative works are conceived, developed, stored, and perhaps shown and sold.
But that’s not all that happens there. Thanks to the creative process that occurs within its perimeter, the studio is also a place for experimenting, putting things together (and maybe taking them apart again), using tools of the trade (both familiar and newly acquired), thinking new thoughts, pushing the boundaries, making mistakes, trying and trying again, exploring meaningful expression, and, as a result of all of that — the whole messy, marvelous process — bringing one’s best work into the world.
The more I looked into the studios I admired, the more I thought everyone should have one! If not in name or physical reality, then in spirit.
We should all have a place to learn and develop our skills, know and understand ourselves as people and practitioners, and grow our belief in ourselves, our abilities, and the value of our work.
So, I've been thinking a lot about how to turn my workspace into a studio. And I've discovered that, for me, it's not really about the physical space in which I work. Instead, it's about making space for the whole of my creative process in the place where my work lives. I tend to hold back on the parts that don't easily fit beside the things I've already done or don't make sense within the current marketplace of things (which I've never really understood anyway).
I don't want to do that anymore.
I want a different kind of space on my website – a place to play with ideas without necessarily needing them to turn into a finished product, although some may (and already have!).
It's early days. There's not much there yet, but I hope that having
a studio (in name and spirit, if not physical reality) and appreciating all that comes with it will encourage me to explore and share the weird and wonderful ideas my brain cooks up.
Here's a peek at one of the things you'll find there:
