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Come behind the scenes at How To Make Art for a #CraftRoomTour and see Tessa's art studio in her dining room in Gainesville, Florida.
I love that this space opens out into the main house, so I’m not sequestered off in a separate room from my husband and dog. I can hang out with them and draw and paint on the dining room table at the same time – it’s the best of both worlds.
Tell us about your space
I use our dining room as my art/craft area. It’s a nice sized room with space for a large table to work on. We never have fancy dinner parties, so we didn’t have a need for a formal dining room. It’s nice to be able to use this room in a more functional way by turning it into a workspace. I mostly draw and paint in this space, and it’s nice to be able to lay out a bunch of sketchbooks and work on several of them at once.
What have you done to make your space cosy, beautiful or inspiring?
This is the only room in the house with painted walls, and I love the feeling that the dark purple color has created. I also love that we have an eclectic mix of thrifted and discount furniture in the room – that makes it feel comfortable and not too fancy. Since the dining table is secondhand, I don’t mind if it gets a few scratches or some paint on it. The openness of the room makes me happy too!
How do you keep organized?
This is an area of my life that I do tend to struggle with from time to time. I am able to keep my work area tidy because I like to keep only the supplies I am actively using around me. I use the time spent tidying up the area as my inspiration/meditation time for getting ready for my next art piece, deciding on materials and subject matter.
Any tips & tricks for organising supplies?
While I do manage to keep my immediate art area organized, the rest of my supplies are not quite as tidy. Since I enjoy using such a wide variety of mediums, my art supply storage tends to get a little overwhelming sometimes. I do have a different room stuffed with all sorts of supplies plus pieces of art in various stages of progress. My best advice would be to get as many bins or shelves as possible to help keep similar types of supplies grouped together as well as to keep them visible to you as you are choosing your supplies to work with each day.
Which are your favourite possessions and are there any of your own creations on display?
I love collecting Pullip dolls and Blythe dolls, and I have several Pullips and one middie Blythe doll displayed in the room. There are also two vintage chalkware figures in here that I adore. I have a tiny wooden house that I painted on display as well as a little candleholder that I painted with a face. The two large paintings in the room are thrifted, and I also have a drawing of a girl in a gilded frame that is by Ana Bagayan.
How do you organise your inspiration and ideas?
I keep lots of written notebooks in addition to my sketchbooks, and these hold a lot of my ideas. I also use Pinterest a lot to keep track of photos I want to draw from and that sort of thing.
Where do you look for inspiration?
I love browsing Instagram. I follow a lot of other artists on there and am endlessly inspired by the things I see.
If you had three wishes, what would you do to make it the dream space?
Make it bigger, add a skylight or two for more natural light, and maybe a nice sound system so I can play music really loud!
Whose craft room would you love to explore? Send us a message!
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