On Saturday I decided to tackle the disaster zone that my studio had become. An overly cluttered studio is not a place that fosters creativity. I’ve come to realize that my paper addiction is 90% of the problem. Between paper I’ve gathered for mixed media, collage, mailart, scrapbooking, paper spiral jewelry, paper packs and recycled envelope sets, my paper collection is out of control. I have two Ikea shelves, a flat storage shelf, and bookshelves in my studio and even that isn’t enough. After trying to organize, put away and find homes for the paper that I have, I had the sudden overwhelming desire to just get rid of it all. It would be so nice to have empty space and a fresh start, I’ll just throw it all away. Of course, I didn’t and couldn’t, there is too much in there that I LOVE and would miss. Realistically, I need to just go through it all and do a value judgement piece, by piece, “Is it necessary?” if not, pitch it. That’s just soooo much work and it would be so much easier to just pitch it all.
I did end up tackling the Ikea drawers that have paper separated in categories of:
-scrapbook/ fancy archival paper,
-paper with adhesive,
-novelty (tags, doilies, slides, etc.),
-antique papers,
-wrapping paper,
-commercially printed papers (booklets, pages, paint samples, etc.)
-scrap papers that have my writing and painting, and sketches, etc.
-and the tiny scraps and bits and pieces that I can’t bring myself to get rid of, AND truthfully I feel like this drawer is the true gem of all the drawers and the one I use paper from most often when creating artwork.
Just for the record, all the pictures above are all from my studio, but they are older pictures and what would qualify for the “bits and pieces drawer”. The middle picture is actually the pieces of paper that I collected for a swap that I did on swapbot, where everyone filled a few envelopes full of bits and pieces of paper and then received several envelopes full of paper in return. The funny thing is, I remember thinking, I just want to send the envelopes and I really don’t need any more paper in return.
i so know that feeling of ‘shall i just toss the lot?’ trouble is, i know all too well, when i do finally ‘dispose’ of something, all too soon it would have been THE perfect element in a painting/collage *ho hum*
I was in a similar Swapbot Swap! And I felt the same way. I’m nearing a point that I need to do a similar organise & purge with the ephemera and notions I keep picking up.
If I have enough I will probably see if Scrap will take my de-stash as a donation. Is there a similar kind of place where you live? The nice thing would be that you could get rid of a bunch without feeling like you’re just trashing it and you could reward yourself with a few nice new pieces (like taking clothing to a resellers).