Book Review: Inside the Creative Studio

Interweave must have a secret spy-cam at my house… why else would they have such perfect timing in sending me a preview copy of their new book, Inside the Creative Studio?

We’ve been moving spaces at my house… which is no secret, because I seem to move my craft space nearly as often as I craft in it. I have set it up, just to move it again, 3 complete times! Any more moving, and it will move right into the laundry room… which is fine with me because I’d rather be crafting than doing laundry anyway! I even have a pinboard on Pinterest dedicated to cool crafting spaces.

Inside the Creative Studio is all about designing the perfect space for whatever kind of creating you do. By using inspiring photos from all kinds of designers, artists, sewers, and crafters, and breaking these down into the elements you need to set up your space for maximum creativity. And it doesn’t matter if that space is a giant loft taking up an entire floor of your house, or a partitioned-off portion of a spare room (even an unused closet or spare corner can make a decent craft zone). Cate Coulaco Sprato says it best herself in the forward of the book, “What makes a good studio? At minimum, a studio is any place that inspires you and allows you to work on your art or craft in a safe and efficient manner.”

I’ve had the good fortune to craft in all kinds of places. From the giant “Activity Room” in my parents’ home to the “kelder” in the South of France where my aunt works in clay (I wish I had pictures to show you, I can’t imagine a more romantic place to create!), to the spare room I use now, that is half craft space and half man-cave. Which seems impossible, but actually isn’t. Just imagine your current crafty space with a large desk, comfy chair, and big flat-screen TV on one wall. Yup, not impossible, just a far stretch of the imagination.

However, I’ve been wanting to make some changes to my portion of the craft-cave. Mostly organizational, which should come as no surprise to anyone who has ever spent serious time with a crafter, or dropped in on a creative person at home when no visitors were expected. I actually had a quote on my wall that said, “A creative mess is better than tidy idleness.” And nobody can accuse me of being idle!

Thanks to Inside the Creative Studio, I have lots of ideas for re-designing my space – including better storage for my fabrics, papers, and stamps, better lighting for both daytime and nighttime crafting, ways to organize my books so that I’ll actually use them, and ways to make my craft space more user-friendly (so I don’t have to keep shoving things out of the way to take pictures for a tutorial… or engage some ultra-creative cropping methods!).

Inside the Creative Studio is a great book to pick up if you’re looking at ways to redesign your space, or just make some tweaks to your current layout so that it supports your inner creativity. You can buy Inside the Creative Studio on Amazon or you can try to win yourself a copy! Post a picture of your stash (paper, fabric, stamps, whatever) over at the Flickr Stash Bash and you could be one of 5 lucky winners to snag a free copy! But act fast – they’re picking winners on September 17th, the day after the great Stashbusters Sale!

Always,