Studio Saturday with Lori Anderson

Welcome to Studio Saturday! Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process, or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you'll leave comments! As an incentive, we offer a free prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard. The following week we choose a random winner.

This weeks winner is BeadRoe. Congratulations!

You have won a bag of goodies from Erin Prais-Hintz!

Send Erin an e-mail with your address and she will send you those treasures!

This has been a hectic week here in my studio!  I went to the Bead and Button Show (brought lots of goodies back in case you want to try for the Big Bead Giveaway!), met with my book editor, did a video interview for promotional purposes down the road, met a million wonderful people, and did a bit of damage to a credit card I'd just paid off.  But I was good, actually, compared to some years.

Needless to say, my beading table and lampwork studio are either piled up with clutter or getting dusty.  I'm behind.  Soooo behind.  I feel like the White Rabbit in "Alice in Wonderland" .... "Late, late, for a very important date!"

source

When I have so many things piled up and a ton of deadlines due, I tend to get, shall we say, frazzled.  The running-down-the-street-waving-my-hands-over-my-head-screaming type of frazzled.  So I've learned to set aside the deadlines, if only for an hour or two, and do something that gives my mind a break.

Two things sooth this savage beast, and one actually helps me get the pile on the workbench under control.

One:  I sort beads.

It's SO cathartic for me to pull out a box of beads and sort.  Beads in too large a baggie get poured into a smaller baggie.  Ahhhhh, there.  Nice and tidy.  Beads that are rolling all over the table, driving me (and the cats) mad, I scoop up and corral into their proper spaces.  My mind can just drift, and I actually feel like I'm accomplishing something without having to think and plan and design and create and, and ..... and.

my bead storage cabinet

Another thing I do when my brain is on overload and I need a mental break is make earrings.  I sell a ton of earrings at craft shows and always try to keep at least 200 or so pairs on hand, so days when I'm overwhelmed are deemed Earring Days.

This time of year, believe it or not, I start preparing for holiday earrings.  My show season starts in mid-October, and patrons expect to see those snowflakes, so out comes the ho-ho-ho and away I go!

beads by Moonraker Lampwerks

I think we all have days when we're just completely overwhelmed with Life.  Life has a way of sneaking up on us and yelling, "BOO!" in our ear just when we've thought things had settled down.  It's always good to have a backup plan, and these are just two of mine.  Depending upon the day, my backup plan could be a nap and a box of chocolates, but then, that would have been a short and boring blog post, now, wouldn't it?

So here's my question to you -- what is your favorite way to recharge your batteries when you're overwhelmed with being a jewelry designer?

 

Answer this question in a comment below, and a winner will be drawn at random next Saturday.  The winner will receive a nice healthy helping of my Bead Soup, styled to your favorite color palette.  Mmm, soup is good food!

Lori Anderson writes the blog Pretty Things and creates jewelry for her web site, Lori Anderson Designs.  She is also the creator of the Bead Soup Blog Party.