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labricoleuseI know i promised that Cirque de Soleil Ka review, and i swear, it'll be up ASAP, complete with pix and presskit goodies and all that!
In the meantime, I thought i'd make a quick post on an admittedly less exciting topic near and dear to my heart, and one that's omnipresent in my professional life right now: shop safety requirements and studio overhaul.
See, I'm coming into a new position--this means i've inherited a craft shop space from my predecessor. This will be the second time i've done this overhauling-of-a-workspace process so while i'm not an expert, I'm no newbie greenhorn either.
There are three things I try to do when i come into a new space:
--maximize storage space for materials and tools
--develop an intuitive organizational system for the extant inventory
--improve upon existing safety conditions where at all possible
I began considering the first of these the moment i was offered the job. Though my contract at the time didn't start for another four months, i came into the workspace and drew out rough maps of both rooms (i've got a dry crafts room and a wet crafts room) with notations as to "permanent" fixtures--such as, say, a steam-jacketed dyevat anchored into the building's plumbing system--and what was up for moving or losing.
In this stage of the process, i always look for ways in which the current space is not being effectively utilized. Is there a lot of "dead air" in the upper areas of the room that could be filled with seldom-used-supplies storage? Where could you add some wall-mounted shelves, or get rid of superfluous clutter? What of the current systems in-use, are there perhaps better ways of rearranging them (i.e., replacing a beautiful but space-hogging old bureau full of hammers and screwdrivers and the like with a streamlined, more efficient tool-storage system designed for the purpose at hand...perhaps even on casters)?
For example, in my present space, an old library card catalogue was being used to store jewelry parts, and a filing cabinet served as a place to keep dyestuffs. The problem with these kinds of recycled-storage units is that they are space-inefficient. A filing cabinet is wonderful for storing files, but the sides of the drawers are only half the height of the fronts! Not so good for stacking full of tiny bottles of pigment and pints of liquid and the like! I'm replacing both units with storage systems that better utilize the space, considering the contents they will contain.
Organizational flow is something that has to be determined by the space and inventory of what you've got to work with. I find frequently that the "organization" of a craft shop has often been something that's grown organically, not necessarily in a logical fashion. The shop acquires some mass of crap from a generous donor--say, a bunch of vintage millinery supplies--and they all go into a box and shoved wherever they fit. Technology advances and we all embrace some new material, like Fosshape thermoformable felt, for example, and the new stuff gets stuck away into a closet full of unrelated old stuff.
It helps to have a means of rearranging your storage easily to keep up with the growth and change of your inventory--rubbermaid bins on shelves you can shift around as needed, or shelves of adjustable height. I also like to go through when initially coming into a shop and label EVERYTHING. Every drawer, every bin, every cabinet; this way, assistants have at least a fighting chance at finding things on their own without having to ask me all the time.
My main focus over the next couple of days, however, is MSDS documentation. Did you know that OSHA requires you to have one on-file for every chemical substance you use in your shop or studio?
Q. Heck, what's an MSDS? you ask.
A. It's a Material Safety Data Sheet. It lists off all kinds of useful info, like the ingredients, physical data like the substance's boiling point, hazards, disposal information, and first aid tips.
Most companies provide them online on their company sites, so you can print them right off the web. You can also use an online search geared toward MSDSs, such as MSDSsearch.com Chasing up an MSDS for every little thing you have in the shop from spray paint to hand soap can seem like a pain in the ass, but it's the law. And, in the process, you'd be surprised the useful stuff you can learn about the products you use in your work and art. At the very least, you might discover some stuff in your Flammables cabinet you could just harmlessly toss in a drawer instead...or vice versa!
In the meantime, I thought i'd make a quick post on an admittedly less exciting topic near and dear to my heart, and one that's omnipresent in my professional life right now: shop safety requirements and studio overhaul.
See, I'm coming into a new position--this means i've inherited a craft shop space from my predecessor. This will be the second time i've done this overhauling-of-a-workspace process so while i'm not an expert, I'm no newbie greenhorn either.
There are three things I try to do when i come into a new space:
--maximize storage space for materials and tools
--develop an intuitive organizational system for the extant inventory
--improve upon existing safety conditions where at all possible
I began considering the first of these the moment i was offered the job. Though my contract at the time didn't start for another four months, i came into the workspace and drew out rough maps of both rooms (i've got a dry crafts room and a wet crafts room) with notations as to "permanent" fixtures--such as, say, a steam-jacketed dyevat anchored into the building's plumbing system--and what was up for moving or losing.
In this stage of the process, i always look for ways in which the current space is not being effectively utilized. Is there a lot of "dead air" in the upper areas of the room that could be filled with seldom-used-supplies storage? Where could you add some wall-mounted shelves, or get rid of superfluous clutter? What of the current systems in-use, are there perhaps better ways of rearranging them (i.e., replacing a beautiful but space-hogging old bureau full of hammers and screwdrivers and the like with a streamlined, more efficient tool-storage system designed for the purpose at hand...perhaps even on casters)?
For example, in my present space, an old library card catalogue was being used to store jewelry parts, and a filing cabinet served as a place to keep dyestuffs. The problem with these kinds of recycled-storage units is that they are space-inefficient. A filing cabinet is wonderful for storing files, but the sides of the drawers are only half the height of the fronts! Not so good for stacking full of tiny bottles of pigment and pints of liquid and the like! I'm replacing both units with storage systems that better utilize the space, considering the contents they will contain.
Organizational flow is something that has to be determined by the space and inventory of what you've got to work with. I find frequently that the "organization" of a craft shop has often been something that's grown organically, not necessarily in a logical fashion. The shop acquires some mass of crap from a generous donor--say, a bunch of vintage millinery supplies--and they all go into a box and shoved wherever they fit. Technology advances and we all embrace some new material, like Fosshape thermoformable felt, for example, and the new stuff gets stuck away into a closet full of unrelated old stuff.
It helps to have a means of rearranging your storage easily to keep up with the growth and change of your inventory--rubbermaid bins on shelves you can shift around as needed, or shelves of adjustable height. I also like to go through when initially coming into a shop and label EVERYTHING. Every drawer, every bin, every cabinet; this way, assistants have at least a fighting chance at finding things on their own without having to ask me all the time.
My main focus over the next couple of days, however, is MSDS documentation. Did you know that OSHA requires you to have one on-file for every chemical substance you use in your shop or studio?
Q. Heck, what's an MSDS? you ask.
A. It's a Material Safety Data Sheet. It lists off all kinds of useful info, like the ingredients, physical data like the substance's boiling point, hazards, disposal information, and first aid tips.
Most companies provide them online on their company sites, so you can print them right off the web. You can also use an online search geared toward MSDSs, such as MSDSsearch.com Chasing up an MSDS for every little thing you have in the shop from spray paint to hand soap can seem like a pain in the ass, but it's the law. And, in the process, you'd be surprised the useful stuff you can learn about the products you use in your work and art. At the very least, you might discover some stuff in your Flammables cabinet you could just harmlessly toss in a drawer instead...or vice versa!
