CJ also asked to take a peek at my studio/work area for her readers. Now remember the bazaar I joined last September? To tell you the truth, I hadn’t cleaned up the studio since! I had strips of paper lying around, stray spiral coils on the floor, supplies unceremoniously dumped on my table. You can’t see what color the tabletop is anymore, seriously.

Well, my cousin was coming over our house to work on last-minute wedding details and CJ needed pictures of the studio so I set to work cleaning and straightening up the studio. I have a couple of pictures up on my Q&A interview but I don’t want to have my clean-up effort go to waste so I’m posting the other pics here. This clean state may not last long as I have another bazaar coming up in December to mess up the place again.

My work table – this is where computer stuff gets done. My laptop, drawing tablet, printer, and DIY lightbox (that white box thing at the end).

This just might be my most prized material possession– my 15″ Macbook Pro. It’s two years old and I bought it myself with my own salary back when I was still working a toxic day job. Below it is my month-old Wacom Intuos 4 drawing tablet, given by someone (who doesn’t want to be named) as an advanced gift for me on my birthday (I turned twenty-something last week).

My craft table. I cut, fold, trim, glue, assemble on this table. On it is my guillotine paper trimmer, bundles of paper for my notebooks awaiting covers, and a couple of pencil holders. Behind it is a drafting table and a green supply cabinet plastered with pictures of Ryan Philippe, Prince William, and various magazine cutouts– relics from my teenage days.

None of us in my family are engineers or architects but my dad likes to have various, useless furniture made and this drafting table is among the rare pieces he had done which we actually have a use for. Its surface covered with a huge cutting mat, this is where I cut large sheets of bristol board into smaller pieces for my notebook covers. The table’s downward slope also makes it an ideal place to work my slide punch (left). The contraption on the right is my wire binding equipment.

A peek inside the green supply cabinet. Some of my papers, packaging supplies, and art materials. Hanging from the door is my small collection of kawaii Japanese/Korean erasers.

Various kawaii erasers shaped like food. Looks good enough to eat!

One of my cabinet shelves. This one has various art supplies from blocks of polymer clay (bottom left) to padding glue, markers, paint, paint trays, brushes…

An orange candy can on my craft table doubles as a pencil holder… so does my Donuts tumbler which holds my scissors and paintbrushes. Behind it is a stuffed dog named Whitey hanging out on the couch.

Thank you CJ for the Q&A opportunity! :) Looking for more artist workspaces? I’m always interested to see how other artists work. Check out Workspaces on ShareSomeCandy for design/creative inspiration and major eye candy!

How I Quit My Job to Follow My Dream by Reg Silva

It’s not about Etsy per se but having the freedom to be my own boss, be happy doing the things I love doing, and being responsible for my own future instead of working senseless for The Man. Thank you to my cousin Monica for the guest post invitation!