On the bench- keeping tools clean

Stump bench in the garden studio

Keeping my work area clean and somewhat picked up is important to me when making jewelry.  A clean space helps me to feel productive,  I don't or can't work in a hot mess of a studio but, creative clutter is another thing :) When filling orders for shops, galleries and trail stops or filling custom orders organized clutter is best.  Well.... I have no choice since the studio is 11'x10'.  I often describe the space akin to a cooks galley kitchen.... for when working on the stump bench I can either reach what I need where I presently am working or a couple rolls of the chair wheels gets me there.

I will write a post talking about the 'studio move' in the near future.  Plans have changed from originally building off of the existing studio, to upcycling our existing back screen porch into a super area for SDAJ.  This change makes the dh happy and also adds another living area to the house and increases the studio's possibilities when hosting open houses, classes and artisan trail events... + makes me smile too! HOOT, HOOT!!  The finished studio will be 7 times what I have now.

Simple is best not needing much effort with keeping the floor swept, benches free of metal shavings, tools in their homes and surfaces ready for that next big project.  If your tools are where they normally are at all times, you tend to be more productive, which decreases stress  when you reach for that lost riveting hammer or when in a hurry reaching for that brass to punch out a design.

 Files should be free from bits of filed metals, steel wool and rust to file properly lasting for years.  The magnetic strip is a pain with magnetizing so all your steel wool floaties get picked up...grrr
Files can't be touching each other for it damages the teeth so the strip works great for that but, you can also have them in a single layer in a drawer.  I won't have them on the front of this work bench again but, attached to the back wall for these crazy things fall every where from just the slightest bump. 

antique hammers or old school work horse hammers for texturing here an old ball-peen hammer....see my fave texturing hammer in the background, an old cobbler's hammer.

just a simple cleaning up

Hammers are an artisans bridging between them and the metal being formed.  I feel hammers are my favorite tool as you can see from the photos hammers live on the stump bench, tool boxes around the studio and are seen featured in many photos when even featuring my jewelry or metalprinting.

HAMMERS are the heart and soul of the 'work' screaming their existence in and out of the studio, making themselves heard. 

Yesterdays Instagram post was the above photo showing 4 of the hammers in the collection that I wanted to start using regularly but, could not with rust and crud covering each. The ball-peen, cross-peen and a tack hammer were first sandpapered with 400 grit wet/dry mechanics paper and then steel wooled.  I also took a punch to my favorite texturing hammer tightening the handle once again, pictured above the Instagram shot.