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I love to see the little objects which keep people company as they work. The things which silently watch the frustrations and triumphs. Those items which sometimes function as a talisman or charm. What we keep close to us. What inspires us.
I invited people to submit a photo of their “studio confidante”. Here’s a list of the generous and talented people who responded. |
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My wife, the Naive Knitter, embedded this cat in soap one afternoon while my niece was busily embedding photos of The Beastie Boys into her bath soap. I have kept it on my shelf ever since. Dr Maybee and his lizard are my work confidants. Both keep watch over my cubicle, and advise me on intra-office politics and the user experience. [2] [3] |
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This is a picture of my little friend Jeanette. She is most certainly always with me when I work. If I travel somewhere to art, she comes with. Her name sake is none other than Jeanette Winterson, who inspires me in her own way, as well. It's a good name, all around. [4] [5]
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He first showed up as a guest at a Halloween party, then took up residence in the studio. We grew closer during the time he spent as a model for a small sculpture I'm doing, and now he supervises and guides much of my work. [6]
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Then you come to what is the closest to my 'little temple of delight'. I've been a great lover of japanese stuff both contemporary and traditional for many, many years. This little box is an antique calligraphy box I bought for my husband many years ago when we first started living together. It's since become my fine objects box. In each drawer there are many lovely things - the big one at the bottom has all my ribbons stuffed in them - in a very beautiful stuffed way - and another has my 'nice' buttons. I try to keep the box pure - with very little on it because I love the colour and texture of it just the way it is. But I do rotate objects to go on top of it - at the moment there's a little shard box from china, and an antique japanese pot. Next to the box is another shard box (I have an unconscious collection of them too), and my favourite things at the moment, 2 little kitty's I have just finished making. [7] [8] [9]
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She sat on my dad's desk and was my favorite thing to play with when I visited his office when I was little. When he retired he passed her on to me and now she sits on my desk. I chose to go into the same line of work as my father so for my this symbolizes our intellectual connection but also reminds me to look for simple pleasures: when I was little, wrapping a kleenex around the kangaroo and calling it a diaper was the most fun and silly game imaginable. [10] |
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A cuckoo clock I had as a child and recently re-discovered, and a very cheap and tacky but somehow very engaging little snowman that plugs into my laptop USB port and lights up different colours! Also, although strictly not on topic, I have included an image of my overflowing pinboard (it takes up one full wall of my room!!) [11] [12] [13]
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Doraemon is a nostalgic cuddly cartoon hero that has been around since 1969. You can find him standing on my table next to my computer, hanging on my inspiration line and hanging in front of my window. [14]
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These guys don't really sit in my workroom. But they do sit on my computer monitor, which is where I do a lot of preliminary work on different things, and where I do all my quilt pattern designing. My father carved the rooster for me years ago. He is about 2 1/2" high. My husband gave me the tiny bobble-head armadillo and turtle. I talk to them while I work and if I give the desk a little nudge, they always nod their heads in agreement with anything I say. Pink armadillos have a special significance in our family, but I won't go into that. [15]
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Michael Wasacz |
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I look at all the pictures in my office a lot during the day, including my Mother, a picture of my daughter and I on the front stairs and the small photo of my Father. I chose the picture of my Father because of late my eyes seem to be going to that photo more than usual. [16] |
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Here is where I paint. And African Violets by the window, and I look at them a lot when I take breaks. I usually set up my paper on the wall behind my easel when I draw, and whatever photo reference I'm using goes up on the wall too. The pink chair has sentimental value as I've had it since childhood. [17] [18] |
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I build little vignettes that I find pleasing to look at and which revolve with the seasons. Usually they are comprised of objects found on my walks... pine-cones, a plastic firefly, a deer antler, pussy willows, plus driftwood, beach glass and seashells I've collected on trips and have been given as gifts over the years. This past Fall, I had the (ahem) brilliant idea of bottling a sampling of each fall's acorns (as pictured below), something I plan to do every year.
I call it "shelf life" and it features a little bird painting on a square canvas I did, a vintage-look sign my husband gave me which reads "Nest", and a three little pegs which hold photo frames. you can't really read it in the photo below, but the frames contain little scrap messages which read "wonder", "explore", and "play". I often change out the other objects on the shelf, according to mood and season. Right now, there's a little bud vase with a pair of tulips from my garden where the vintage acorns once sat. It is sort of a visual reminder to me to be grateful for the ability to be creative and to appreciate the wonder of nature. I dunno... it just makes me feel good, connected. [19] [20]
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Shelley Noble |
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My mascot is a brown natural fiber-covered rabbit about 1.5 feet tall that has a wicker woven basket strapped to his back filled with green woolen yarns. His paws are filled with natural painting and drawing tools such as a twig pencil. I love him sooooo much. Two Easters ago I bought him his wife. She's from the same company but a little smaller and in a different pose. They mean so much to me. I consider them among my most prized possessions.
The photo shows pieces of my inspiration wall that, while constantly evolving, always displays images that really ring my bells. It runs the length of one wall as near my computer as possible and is collaged/grouped by sections/topics; meditation/relaxation, visual metaphor, woman's backs, translucency, etc. [21] [22] |
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Pictures of my studio, which is a complete whirlwind of messiness right now! These are my selected "confidantes". [23] [24] |
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A chinese box for storing your tea pot. I keep bits of ribbon and other cute bits and bobs in it on my sewing table. I love this box and have had it around for about 10 years now. I picked it up in China while I was studying over there. It is not only beautiful (though a bit ratty now) it takes me back in time. [25] [26] |
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Maria Strubel |
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My "workspace" and Gabriela before styling. She has had a few haircuts as you will no doubt note. I kind of like this shot because it includes the laptop and hair magazines visible behind the TV table. [27] |
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My dear dear damned dollie that I picked up last summer at renegade craft fair. She sits right next to my sewing machine and expresses perfectly what I'm often feeling while sewing.
And the second photo is a little plaque my husband picked up years and years ago at the thrift store. I just love these little cuties. [28] [29]
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I have a very small workspace, but it's all mine, and I fill it with things I love and find inspiring. Here is a photo of a small section of wall in front of my work bench. I pin things up that I like: a page from a magazine with a Modigliani print, a fabric flower I made years ago, ATC's from swaps, vintage postcards, a tiny book my brother hand-bound in one of his art classes, a carved wood block for printing, etc. [30]
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My chosen item is an embroidered picture, probably 1930s, of a kind of Spanish crinoline lady next to a vase of fantastic lupines. I bought her 2 years ago in Whitstable (a lovely seaside town on the north Kent coast). She's pretty tacky and the frame isn't good but when I saw her I knew I had to have her. The shop was closed and I was going home, but I drove 90 miles back as soon as the shop was open again to get her. She sparked off my collection of crinoline ladies and old embroideries and I love her hand-made-ness, her floral extravagance and her brightness. [31] [32]
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I started looking around my studio room and noticed a definite confidante theme... here are four confidantes of mine. [33]
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From my earliest days as a lawyer in the 1980s, my desktop inspiration to keep on slogging through junior-lawyer scut-work was a Japanese wind-up toy. It was a boy, hunched over a desk with a pen in his hand. On the desk was a container of ramen noodles. This was my life for 17 years--hunching over, scribbling, and eating take-out food. He kept me company until I quit the law .... which happened to be on September 7, 2001. I got too caught up in end-of-career festivities and last-minute work to clean out my office, so I planned to come back the following Tuesday, September 11. My office was a block away from the WTC, and I was unable to go back for more than a year. Eventually my boxes were moved into storage, and I've never retrieved them (due to laziness). I'm hoping the Little Writing Guy is still there, but I couldn't take a picture of him. So I'm sending this picture of a few objects that inspire my knitting, which is getting more and more self-directed, right now.
1. Yoko's Paper Cranes. Having small children allowed me to catch up on the world of illustrated children's books. Rosemary Wells has always been a favorite, but Yoko's Paper Cranes is simply amazing. The illustrations incorporate exquisite Japanese papers. Wonderful integration of story and illustration. Somehow, it just opened my heart. I've started collecting Japanese fabrics and craft books, just to look at.
2. In the corner, Patricia Polacco's book, The Keeping Quilt. My knitting is inspired by quilts, especially the Gee's Bend quilts. This story speaks to why we keep these shreds of fabric. I don't cry easily but this book always gets me boo-hooing. I'm proud to be a needleworker, dammit!
3. My collection, newly started, of Heidi Kenney's paintings. Her little girl looks amazingly like my daughter, who has those Louise Brooks eyes (and haircut). Is there a connection between Heidi (her website is called My Paper Crane) and Yoko?
4. The background is a denim blanket I knitted in homage to Loretta Pettway's 'Bricklayer' quilt from the travelling Gee's Bend Quilts exhibition. The original is made from 'old britches legs', pieced together the best way she could, she said. I try to piece the best way I can and I think of Loretta Pettway whenever I feel like I don't know what I'm doing. [34]
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Sarah Neuburger
thesmallobject.blogspot.com |
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It's a penny dreadful valentine. Keeps me in check. [35]
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My main studio confidant is a plaster bank in the shape of the Lucha Libre wrestler, El Santo. He watches and protects. How would I work without him? And although most of him is painted in flat color, looking exactly like what it is, paint on plaster, his eyes are different. They have life. They are compassionate and smart.
"Fear of Shadows" is a tiny 5"x5" canvas done by Brian Behnke. It is nearly hidden from view unless you are sitting right at my computer, when I am vacillating over whether or not to take a chance, I look at it. [36] [37]
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More like office confidantes - they supervise my writing. They are not normally so neatly arranged, and there are many more of them keeping me company. From left to right: Pink plastic holy water bottle, Wonder Woman drink bottle, Holy statue, Mongolian felt doll, First Communion cake decoration, Russian doll, cat and Pikachu (Pokemon). My confidants are invariably religious kitsch, dolls, cats, red riding hood and Pokemon. [38]
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My wonderful bird friend... I just can't stop looking at this bird sometimes. It makes me so happy. I LOVE the simplicity! I picked it up in an antique shop up the coast and it has been by my side ever since. [39]
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A little group of toys that I had when I was little that I keep in one of my work areas. And a little vase, it's really an old inkwell, where I stick any pretty feathers that my birds lose. Nothing terrible fancy or deep, just things I have that make me smile. [40] [41]
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Phyllis Howe |
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My lamby pie - sitting on the out tray of my hp printer. He's been washed only once since I bought him a long time ago. It's ok. He doesn't get out very much. He's my guardian lamb. In a bowl, just above him, is this spring's experiment. I "forgot" to stick some daffodil bulbs in the ground and I'm know trying to see if I can force them since they actually sprouted in the box in which they were abandoned. To the right, above him, is the Martha Stewart label maker (I got it wholesale - when I was doing a project for the magazine.) It reminds me of the importance of being organized - and staying on the right side of the law. [42] |
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Out of all the junk in my studio, I choose this guy. He has been following me around for about 30 years and I've never been able to figure out anything to do with him or get rid of him- so he is now happy watching me work. [43]
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This is only a small portion of what I have when it comes to toys. I find inspiration in a lot of things and places. I have three bookshelves of books and a truck load of magazines. [44]
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Stephanie Barnes
mamaunraveled2.blogspot.com |
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I have a desk which is sort of the nexus of activity and where I write my blog and connect with other bloggers. On my desk is Jasper, a wooden bird that I would guess is of Scandinavian origin. My daughter found him in the toys at the thrift store. I knit him a scarf on teeny tiny needles. He is organic and simple in form yet dreamy and whimsical in demeanor, maybe how I'd like my work to be? [45]
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Here is a small area near one of my working tables that I absolutely love because it is so bright (and pink) and cheery. [46]
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A little Fisher-Price sewing machine that I've had since I was little. It had always sat on my dresser, it was too special to just lump in with the rest of my toys in the toy box. When I was older and it was time to give away some of my toys I just couldn't let the sewing machine go. It's always near my desk now, quietly reminding me of my love for sewing no matter where I live or what I'm doing. [47] |
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Not really one confidant, but several - an old shoe pin cushion, threads from Pete's grandfather's old upholstery business he had in the 1940's, photos of Pete, and my grandma and grandpa on my mom's side-fake fruit from grandma, a vase carved from a nut, a painting from a friend, all tucked into a little wooden shelf/box-with glass buttons lurking about.
Little tiny things-that's what I like. [48]
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Things that inspire me: horned beetles, paint chips, fake sushi, little sachet with 18th century lady, a bonsai philosopher from Hong Kong, Tanuki from Yasu, mini architectural models, Michelin man truck from Paris. [49] [50] [51]
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Cristina Shiffman |
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I don't have a studio or even a table to call my own, but the objects that delight and inspire are all around the house. I chose two and made two images that I think tell the whole story. The bird vessel was a church tag sale find and rests on a swatch of knitting made by an unlikely knitter, my brother. That's the Unexpected.
The Timeless tale is told by the first piece of artist's pottery I ever collected (the "heart" of a set of nesting bowls by Londa Weisman smallest bowl fits on the top of my pinkie finger) resting by a piece of lace I'm knitting right now. [52] [53] |
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It's a bunny fetish I bought my husband when we were dating (twelve years ago). Somehow it made it onto my desk, and it's always there. This is the bunny's serious side. [54] |
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This is the first piece of art I ever bought, I was 12 or so. It is an Inuit bone man. I love him! He has always been in my work space. He sits on top of a chair, one of 5 that I made in metal shop at college. [55]
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I don't know if this is an Australian thing the "fairy on a stick" all I remember as a kid was wanting one every year from the Royal Agriculture Show. I don't know how many I had over the years, they never seemed to last. But I always remember yearning for one. Anyhow, a friend was going to the show last year and made the mistake of asking if I wanted anything and "fairy on a stick" was the first thing that came to mind and she came thru with the goods! She lives on my desk. [56]
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This is the little guy who watches me sew and draw and make collages in the corner of our living room I have claimed for crafting. My husband's 70-year-old former art teacher gave him to us, so I always think he has a look of an art teacher. [57] |
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Wonder Woman hangs over my desk and inspires me often. Her top and tiara actually have a great sheen when the light is right. This was painted by my newly transplanted to the big city of New York, John Jennison.She has been dutifully inspiring me for a few months now as she hangs above my workspace. [58]
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This used to be a collage on a bulletin board in my old cubicle, but I moved to a new desk (with a window - tra la!) and wanted to take it with me :)
And the Wooz! He was hides behind my speaker. My friend and co-worker knit him for me. He has taken over my Happy Meal Hello Kitty bracelet set that that same friend brought to me one day after lunch. [59] [60]
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My little stone cat. Matt & I bought her in Paris many years ago when we were doing the post-student backpack around Europe thing. She travelled with us for 4 months and has been with us since. She moves around the house a fair bit, but is currently on my desk inspiring me through this cat making bender I'm presently on! I'm not sure I would have picked her up now, but she has so much sentimental value I can't bear to pack her away. [61]
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My studio confidante -- a wizard/witch (she just can't decide which she is) that I made as a papier mache hand puppet for my son a year ago, and then promptly took back because I love it so. She's the one who either makes the crafting magic happen, or puts a hex on my projects. I just never can tell what she's going to do. [62]
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A view of the little corner I work out of. It's the green and blue horizontal cupboards with red heart pull knobs that get my creative motor humming. [63] |
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Vera Wasacz
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My work, although not strictly creative, springs from love nonetheless. This is a photo of the area where I pack humanitarian aid to send to Russia. [64] |
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Liz Mills |
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This is Darth Vader who has watched over my projects the longest of anything. He doesn't inspire me at all, I just like him. Only things that I find really useful and like go in him, other things get put in drawers or less favored cups. I used to keep a Vader Pez dispenser in him which looked very cute but there wasn't enough room for it with all the pens and tools. [65] |
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No matter how much I organise and tidy up my home and studio I always find myself creating little nooks for my favourite things....and they can get a bit crowded at times but I like it that way (even though the rest of the spaces are fairly bare). Here are pictures of the many little friends I have keeping me company (especially late at night when working). [66] [67]
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