In My Corner with Unique Nique

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I have had a lot of fun writing these article and getting to know some of our team members in the process. But I must amit that all these last articles have made me so jealous when it comes to having a whole room to only clean up when you decide to do something crazy like be in a blog post about craft spaces. That being said it would not be in my best interest right now to take over my 3 year or 1 year olds rooms either. I am planning to close-in a back porch and create a room in perhaps 15 years. Sigh 15 years isn't that long, right?

So today we get a glimpse into Unique Nique’s craft space. 

Monique has two main areas she works out of. The first is the garage where her kilns, glass storage, mold storage, grinder and glass saw are .

The other is a room in her home which she converted into a studio. I love the aqua color she chose her walls and all the natural light. 

Monique makes beautiful jewelry out of art glass, dichroic, copper wire, sterling wire, crystals and beads of many kinds and her craft room has a lot of her items she uses and lots of storage containers for those items.

 But she can not live with out her Dremel tool “ Oh boy it is one of my truly favorite things, I cut, polish, engrave, make holes, make curves all with the one tool it is wonderful,” she told me. 

I loved seeing some of her finished products on little displays near her desk in the picture below. 

In one way or another she has spent her whole life re-purposing things or making something out of whatever is to hand - She grew up in a big family and there was no choice but to think outside the box if she wanted or needed anything she had to use what she had. She has always made things but she only got into glass in her 30's. She loves the colors; the vibrancy and the way you can make the shapes speak to you whether it is with your glass cutter or with the heat from a torch or kiln. Her telling me these things was inspiring and made me think of how crafters really truly love what they do.  Even if it isn’t the most profitable job we could have.    

Other then working with glass; wire crochet with seed beads and swarovskis crystal is her favorite medium to work with.  She stated, “It is an incredible feeling when the wire seems to take on its own intricate pattern it is almost like the beads and wire decide on their own how they would like to blend.”  I think a lot of us feel that same way about our favorite medium.  I am sometimes amazed at how cute my daughter looks in some of my clothing because of fabric choices and pattern alterations. 

Now when she told me her storage tip I thought man this is a woman who could become my best friend.  Her tip…  “Plastic ice cream containers - they stack easily and they are perfect for my little tubes of seed beads, they also store mosaic pieces well as the lids fit tight but are still easy to open, and believe me tight fitting lids are what you want when it comes to small pieces of glass and all those seed beads. I don't know anyone who likes to play thousand piece pickup.”  By the way I have done that. I use seed beads in some of my smocking and when they get away I end up spending more time picking them up then sewing.   

So now we all have a great excuse to buy that gallon plastic tube of ice cream and eat it quickly so we can use it for storage.   Any excuse is a good one right?   

Inspired by people, nature, movement and shapes, math, actually pretty much anything was truly shown in this picture of some of her work in the window.  I thought it was neat that she said she sleeps with a notepad next to her bed and often wake up with a scribble or two and sometimes even a decipherable picture.

I felt Unique Nique inspired and reminded me why I do what I do and why I love it.  Thank you, Monique, for sharing your space as well as your love for your craft.

Enjoy

Barbara