Organizing Your Craft Space

by Jo Packham

Every crafter wants a work space that's usable, attractive, and well-organised, and here's how to achieve that goal. Inside this spiral-bound guide, with colour-coded pages for easy reference, are hints, tips, and dos and don'ts for each individual craft. There are craft categories so that individual problems are addressed (Mosaic and stained glass, knitting and crocheting, needlepoint and embroidery, scrapbooking and papercrafts, painting, beading, stencilling and rubber stamping, and sewing and fabric crafts). Plus, professional artists invite you into their studios to see how they keep things orderly, from smart storage to functional surfaces.

Genres: Crafts, Nonfiction, Reference, Art, Quilting, Sewing, Interior Design

144 pages, Paperback

First published March 28, 2006

Reviews

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were ideas for organizing lots of different crafts. What struck me as I read the book was that most people major in ONE craft (stained glass, mosaics, rubber stamping, stenciling, beading), but I have to organize 'stuff' for scrapbooking, crocheting, sewing, quilting, and paper crafts. Now I've even added Sunday school crafts. There's also felt Bible stories. Sigh! So many crafts--so little space! Fortunately they don't list books and music as crafts, but they are space-consuming hobbies. Not enough space -- but a rich, full, entertaining life. Can't complain.

[Marcy Graybill · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting peek into a variety of artist's studios. Some good ideas as well.

[Lauren Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Organizing Your Craft Space by Jo Packham is a gorgeous book. Mouthwatering beautiful. Every page offers encouragement that crafters who are overwhelmed by their stashes of supplies and heaps of tools can get organized to be more productive and effective in their artistic efforts. The thematic structure of the book is outstanding: an opening chapter which provides an overview of how to assess any space for use with any imaginative endeavor, and then following chapters explicitly designed for assessing your spaces in light of seven common specialties: stained glass and mosaics, rubber stamping and stenciling, scrapbooking, paper crafts, beading, yarn crafts and needlework, and quilting. There's a lot of crossover between those crafts, and the ideas for those crafts are translatable to other arts and hobbies such as model-making.

Of course, don't take this book as a license to go out and buy every bin, every cute box, every size and shape cubby you think might help. Do the work, the hard work, to examine your work area and your needs and plan - the old "Measure twice, cut once" is real. You'll get time back for your most important stuff - your creations.

Lauren Williams, Certified Professional Organizer, Owner, Casual Uncluttering LLC, Woodinville WA USA

[Karen]

I can't say that I got any actionable ideas from this but I very much enjoyed peeking into other people's craft rooms (and chuckling at what the author called "a large amount of fabric" in the quilting chapter).

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oldie but a goodie!

[Tracie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has just the right amount of inspiration for me to finish my sewing/quilting space. The photos are really helpful

[ThePinkCarrot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like that there are lots of photos to see how others organize their crafty spaces.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though this book was very dated it was fun to read and browse through and look for organizing ideas. It got me very motivated!

[Sonya Feher · Rating 3 out of 5]

For those folks who sew, bead, scrapbook, knit, etc. and have all their supplies tucked into closets, plastic bins, or various bags and baskets around the house, I was hoping Organizing Your Craft Space would offer ideas about how to organize multi-craft areas. It doesn't really. Instead, the introduction and getting started sections offer very regimented advice about how to go about planning one's space with step by step directions that would drive me crazy to follow. Then the books chapters focus on stained glass and mosaics, rubber stamping and stenciling, scrapbooking, paper crafts, bead, yarn crafts and needlework, and quilting. If you have hundreds or thousands of rubber stamps to organize or you just work in one of these mediums, the section related to your art form could really help. If, however, you are one of those folks who does tons of different things and need a way to combine your materials into a multi-use space, this book is not particularly helpful. It's still worth looking through the photos, even if you don't read the text, because you might apply some of the storage and organizing principles to your own art form.

[aks · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book that is grossly mis-titled. It should be called "Decorating Your Craft Space." When your method basically involves putting everything in drawers, jars, and cigar boxes (all outfitted with cutesy little tags denoting the contents), and you advocate absolutely BULLSH*T things like storing your DMC floss by color, not by the color number, you have no business whatsoever using the word "organizing" in your book title. Seriously, while reading this book, I found myself muttering "B*tch, please" and "Are you FREAKING kidding me?" over and over.

The index in this book is bare bones - so much so that it might as well not exist. The author tells you to use templates to design your workroom, and even shows you cool pictures of templates, but gives you zero info on where you might obtain said templates -- or any of the real (i.e. professional, not the damned jars, boxes, and drawers she harps upon incessantly)organization systems pictured in the book. Her recommendations for storing yarns don't take any environmental factors (sunlight, dust, moths, pets, children, etc.) into consideration. If I could give this book zero stars, I definitely would.

[Mary Silvernale Shook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Skimmed the book. Chapters organized by different crafts. So not that many pages on quilting. I did take one hint away that if your threads are always tangled then you need a different strategy for thread storage. Great pictures and amazing spaces pictured, but not very attainable?

[Bonita Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

again, another book FULL OF PICS AND GREAT IDEAS on how to better organize your craft/studio spaces. A fun read!

[joy *the clean-reader extraordinaire* · Rating 2 out of 5]

this did not have much on organizing a sewing/fabric/quilting mess, which is my current goal. cool ideas for scrapbooking and other crafting spaces.

[Susie Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this book. It has some really cool pictures and some neat suggestions. I would definitely recommend this.

[Sandybear76 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Different crafters exhibit their craft space and list organizational tips that have worked for them.

[Kristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very inspiring. I got several good ideas about where to start when organizing a craft space, and how to proceed step by step. The photos were great.

[Holly · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was alright. Lots of neat photos. Some 'style' quizzes. Just didn't resonate with me.

[Sandra · Rating 1 out of 5]

A waste of money