Ronni Hunter Studios

"work table"

Messy Work Table

"cat", "work table"Ronni HunterComment

This is Mr. Jingles.  He is in my way.  Notice that he is lying on top of the pile of ..... stuff..... on my work table.  There are sharp pointy things in there!  The whole left side of the table is open cuz that's where the piece I'm stitching goes, but he has to lie on top of the scissors, pins. rulers, paint, paper towels, paint brushes etc.  Visualize me working while battling cat hair, and wiggly tails.  Searching blindly under the cat for my thimble.  Sigh.  And yet, I wouldn't kick him out for the world.  My cats keep me company and it makes me happy that they want to be with me.


He had his photo op and is taking a well deserved rest now.  Slug.


This is Naja.  After Jingles left, and I had added a nice crinkly sack to the table top, (cuz there wasn't enough junk on there yet), she had to get in on the action.  Now, its summertime, and its been really hot, so these little monsters are shedding like mad.  I constantly have to fish cat hair out of my contact lenses.  I keep lint roller handy to get the cat hair off my artwork.  But she was so sweet, all squirmy and purring.  After a short while she left.  But.....


As soon as I got to work again, Harry had to come say hi.  He is a 20 pound monster of a cat and my work table is his favorite place to sleep.  Whatever I'm working on was obviously designed to be his bed.  Duh!  But laying there quietly wasn't enough.  He tromped around on the pile of stuff for a few minutes and then decided he needed a cuddle.


How could I say no?  Taking a picture of him with my right hand while he is lying on my left arm was a challenge!  No artist working in solitude, with pets, could ever be lonely.

Chaotic Work Table

"studio", "work table"Ronni Hunter1 Comment
The thing about working in fiber or collage is that it generates scraps.  Beautiful scraps that I'm always sure I could do something with.  Its the bane of all artists!  I keep getting ideas about using the bits and pieces from the original project that turned into a disaster but left me with all these delectable scraps.  The theory is that I'll use the scraps up but somehow that never seems to work out.  LOL!  I've decided that I need to start making an effort to photograph my work as it progresses, on the off chance that a magazine article idea strikes me.  That way I'll have pictures for how-to articles or something vague like that.  And something to post on this blog.  So I get out the camera and start taking pictures of the piece on my design board.  While I'm in there I decide to take pictures of the incredible mess on my work table.  Actually, it does get worse than this.   I'm a menace to myself in here!  I can't find the sewing needles, or the right paint brush or..... you get the idea.  Not enough space, too much stuff.  And really, when you get into the zone you just aren't thinking about being tidy.  Here I was working on experiments with Stacked Journaling which I learned about from artist Judi Hurwitt.  Check out her work, its gorgeous!  The experiments were a ton of fun.  However, the pictures of the artwork came out incredibly blurry.  Whats the deal?  Same camera, same room, same photographer, and the pictures I came in here to take suck while the "incidental" photos are fine.  Hmph.

Here is a photo of the lovely sewing machine I work with.  My mom can't recall exactly when she bought it but it is approximately 40 years old.  I learned to sew on this machine.  Its a serious work horse, but at this point it kind of lacks finesse.  Unless I win a contest somewhere I'll never be able to afford another machine so I'll probably use this one until one of us dies.

Although this picture doesn't prove it, I kind of looked nice yesterday.  So while I was in a camera happy frame of mind I decided to take some pictures of myself.  Never a good idea!  Nonetheless, bravery is getting the better of me this morning so here I am, red nose and all.  But hey, you can kind of see the little pink jewel on one of my teeth.  Its been there since last August but only one person has ever noticed it.  Enough about me.  There will be more about me later!

MESSY WORK TABLE photo collaboration

"studio", "work table"Ronni Hunter4 Comments
If I actually had any readers they would think I am stalking Lynn Krawczyk!  Really I'm not!  I'm just trying to get involved in the blogosphere and she keeps giving me great opportunities.  Thanks Lynn!  This is a photo of my work table as it looks right this minute.  I'm working on a readers challenge for Quilting Arts Magazine all about your signature color.  You might be guessing that mine is purple.  Pink is actually my favorite color, but almost everything I make ends up with purple in it so I dug out the purple scraps and went to town.  My work table is usually twice as bad as this but I cleaned up a bit a few days ago because I couldn't find anything.  The surface is covered with several pieces of freezer paper that are looking really cool with all the paint and ink and glue.  I love the idea of taking photo's of my work table.  Its such an evolving space.  An artists work table reflects the mood, joy, and pain of the artist.  The frenzy, pleasure and chaos are evident in the piles of media and ephemera.  Imagine years of such photos as a record of where you've been as an artist.  My journal is calling my name right now!  I love my work table.  I'd hug it if I could.  I suppose I could get down and hug a leg, but that might look all wrong, if you know what I mean.  Feeling pretty silly today!