Monday, June 10, 2013

The QK workspace: Mess, mess and then some QK creations :P

One of my favourite conceptual photo series is Writers' Rooms , which gives you a fascinating peep into the physical spaces where authors create --- just their work rooms, empty of them, but full of their presence and the potency of their past and future works. Here you can see the backstage score to some amazing works of fiction: the unmade bed, the solitary window, the cat napping in the corner. Workdesks: some impeccably ordered, others a vile mess. The books, the books, the books: stacked on the floor like mountains, arranged in myseterious order in massive bookshelves.

Sadly, I haven't yet come across a Crafter's Room series. And let me tell you, ever since I started quilling almost 2 years ago, I've been combing so many craft blogs and sites for just one picture that would satisfy my curiosity about What Made This Artist? (and sometimes give me the pleasure of saying, 'aha, I knew it!' when workspace and artistic style match!). And of course, apart from satiating the overactive imagination, it also gives a crafter good tips on essential crafting nightmares, such as storage (quilling strips are daunting hell when they get out of their neat packing and refuse to go back ever-so-neatly), good lighting (especially since quilling a lot like eye-wringing fiiiine needlework sometimes!), and that most crucial thing: stimulus for the imagination.

So in this post I'm gonna give you a tour of my somewhat-decorated Quillkaari workspace (which essentially is a fancy term for a-room-in-my-house), and flaunt all my collectibles. First up, the Quillkaari workdesk, which is always in a state such as this:  










And often I stand and work because that's what my workchair looks like most of the time.










Anyhow, there are other interesting things in the room, such as my Memo board, which was custom made by Enthu Cutlets. Half chalkboard, and half pinboard! :) This is where I pin my inspirations: nice notes from people I love, a handmade card, a gorgeous watercolour painting, a sweet postcard. This is also where I am supposed to write my To Do list, but I tend to just write ego-salve type things :D


Then there're the two coordinates that are supposed to remind me that I can't just sit around sipping tea, looking out of the window and quilling cutie new things, since there are orders to be shipped and the phenomenon of Time Management to be grappled with: The Clock and The Calendar.

I got this Q clock custom-made a few months ago. It just happened so that I got a custom request for a quilled P from a certain Madhvi Khaitan. Only after the creation was shipped and the money came in from a certain Workshop Q, I realised that an artist had ordered my creation! I saw all the amazing upcycled and reclaimed creations on their shop, and asked Madhvi if I get could get this clock in the Q alphabet for the Quillkaari room. Fabulous, isn't it?

And this perpetual calendar was bought from a shop called Itkila on ItsHandMade, mainly because a Work From Home life often means that you don't leave house all week, and forget what date/ day it is at all :P With this calendar, I thought I would physically change the date everyday, and hence remember it (That trick didn't work. Clearly I haven't been following the logic since May 18 :P) Itkila's shop on IHM isn't functional at the moment, but you can check out their blog here.









And that's my QK Fairy, ready to crown me Quilling Queen, only if I work hard and finish all the quilling I have brewing in my head! I (mis)use her for sundry other things, such as drying earrings and pendants. Sometimes on very hot afternoons when the heat in this AC-less room addles my brain, I talk to her, offering advice about modesty and wearing tights under her dress if she has to fly around all over the place like this.







I love sitting in the QK room in the wee hours of the morning (perils of having to wake up in tune with the water supply hours!), along with my huge mug of spicy milky tea and jar of cookies, windows open and breeze blowing in. This is the time I ignore the To Do list and dream of all the possibilities: the new collections I must launch, the flowers I must translate into quilling, the people I must gift quilly creations to. But as the day progresses, real life wakes me up and makes me quill through my To Do list --- sometimes I do this in tandem with my housework.

And in the end the entire house is my workspace.

Sample: My bed.

Also sample: The drawing room. 



And of course, quilling causes many other messy disasters in the house, which I did not photograph but are evident in my admonishing To Do lists stuck to the fridge. 


It's been a week and I still haven't done those. Clearly, my orders are so severe, even I can't follow them. Good thing that Quillkaari employs me and only me.

I feel bad for my tornado-ravished house once in a while, and even more so for The Husband who comes home to this :P So I cleaned up quite a bit of the mess, and can now show you happy shiny pics of the QK room that lies under the debris. 

Here is my workdesk all cleaned up:




You can finally see my knick-knack caddy from The Wishing Chair (same store I bought the QK Fairy from). This was a planter when conceived by its maker and the store, but now holds a calculator for MSExcel-challenged me, a beautiful card my mum gave me last birthday, my To Do list diary, some handy tape and scissors, and most important accessory for Feviocol-filled, moisture-ripped dry quiller hands: hand cream! And those are my Madhubani coasters so that no chai-rings are transferred onto desk and quilling paper. 

 Then there's my handpainted Salvador Dali box in which I keep all my quilling tools - my sister had this made to order by an artist in Varkala's flea market, who rather snobbishly answered her "you should expand your brand!" remark in a way that reminded her of me (namely, "Hell, I don't do this for money!").












And look below, this is how I store all my quilling stuff - big plastic boxes for various thickness of quilling paper, punches, jewellery findings, varnishes, papers, accessories and finished pieces, phew! I bought the rack for 300 bucks from a local store that sells these boxes - you'll find it at most shops in Sarojini Nagar/ Lajpat Nagar/ Munirka that sell bathroom/ kitchen plastic storage. Ditto for the collapsible plastic toy bin that houses all my hardly-used-s. Also see, Fabindia star-and-moon fairy lights and my big folder of bill records (also paper and cardboard) bought from iTokri!  

                                       

And that's were I collapse after a mad day at work. Or a very big lunch.Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.



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