The time for a new workshop is here!
There are projects.. then there are HOLY GUACAMOLEEEEE projects.
This one for me, was the later.
Let’s get the self-critique out of the way. I’m not organized as a human. Whether it’s paperwork, throwing 1,000 different items into a bin and “knowing it’s in here somewhere”, etc. this has just been a part of my life, personality… I DON’T KNOW!! It just is what it is.
My hectic mind doesn’t see the chaos.
But, I’m working on it!
This project is a way to focus my energy on still being able to maintain my chaos but in a way that is at the very least sustainable. I won’t crap up the space ideally and start overwhelming it with more stuff.
16 bags of sorting out literally JUNK that I’ve kept sometimes for almost 20 years. I know it’s absurd, I still do it anyways, but I have been better as of late.
Okay so enough is enough, all that good jazz, and here we are… building a new workshop in my garage. Would love to do it in the house but ever since COVID-19 the office has become a shared space with the wife and she has been MORE than tolerant of my ability to fill a small room with an incredible amount of stuff.
With the work situation not changing and puppets hanging off the ceiling it was time for a new space. Version 2.0 down the road I’m already thinking about and that’ll be one of those tiny workshop/houses they sell at Home Depot.
I’m FAR FAR FAR away from anything like that so until then, we takeover the garage that was my “I don’t want to climb” storage area.
I’ve had this workbench in here bolted to the frame of the garage for a couple years now and was the initial inspiration for me thinking that I can just build on from this, make more space, and bring all my stuff in here.
PLOT TWIST! I’m also an avid RC crawler enthusiast so I’m bringing all of that gear into the space with me too. So that was pretty easy, I cleaned out the “car shelf” and added a second wire shelf from an old greenhouse we had.
Okay Steve, breathe deep my man, you can do this!
Getting this small part done so quickly really lit a fire under the butt and got the brain juices flowing.
Up next… A sewing table!
I’m not going to buy a fancy one with the center that drops yet, I need to upgrade the machine itself at some point first.
The sewing machine is important partly for the puppets, and also because my daughter loves fashion and wants a place to “create” so I guess we’re sharing the space. Trust is a sewing table area is going to be the same for puppets and clothing. A few different scissorsScissors and shears are the primary cutting tools in puppet … More, measuring tapes, etc. but the bones of it is the same.
This took me a morning to build, using the existing workbench and the built in cabinets for support. This table is rock solid.
I stood on it to test!
I mentioned organizing before. So next up was the built in cabinets. The right side cabinets are taken for personal items, the wife’s art collection slides from when she was in college, and of course a giant pile of BMX and skateboarding parts (told you I’m a packrat).
The left? This is going to be where all the fleece and fur go, so I started loading it up with the small stockpile I have. The story of my losing a 20’x6′ wall of fabricFabric is the outer surface of a puppet — the skin, the cl… More is a story I probably never want to tell. Our old house sprung a leak right over my fabric storage and it ruined everything from the rust in the pipes that covered everything.
The good news is it’s all NylafleeceFleece is the knit fabric used as the outer skin on most mod… More and Fuzzelle from here on out so what I am buying is only the best quality stuff. I’m on year 19 of the puppetry experience so I’d rather build less and build awesome. Take my time and really get things right.
With everything in the closet now organized pretty good, I’m getting to building a second bench on the other side of the room. Originally I was going to use this as a 3D printing3D printing produces rigid plastic parts from a digital mode… More table.
After clearing out the lawn tools I realized I’m probably going to be able to build that somewhere else so I’m instead using this as what I’ll call the “final assembly table” aka where I’m hand stitching on parts, gluingGluing is how most of a puppet actually gets joined — the … More up foamFoam is the structural material most soft puppets are built … More with barge cement, and anything else that needs to be done.
I moved my cordless tools to this wall as well since it made sense, I don’t have anything else to put on this wall anyways. So we might as well hang tools and maybe I’ll add a decorative shelf to put some personal stuff to un-garage it a little.
You can see how much more tabletop space there is now that puppets are starting to arrive. A lot of my original creations since I’ve only kept the personal stuff over the years, a mascot head just because, and a new creation or two spotting on the benches with my makeshift group of puppet stands.
They range from paper towel holders from the dollar store to full wood drilled out, “glued and screwed” bases with foam balls glued to the tops. I’m thinking of an idea for a modular system where I can simply lift and drop a character still on the rod into another slot.. but that’s a future upgrade.
I’m at the point now where I’m just organizing stuff. Emptying out old cardboard boxes, cleaning and labeling everything, and then putting them into fresh new bins instead. Add in a dose of Halloween cleaning for the boxes of decorations just setup it’s making me realize I can re-organize the back left corner by the door much much better. I’m just going to need to remove everything, clean it down, and reorganize it all more effectively.
I’m also trying to be mindful to not get caught up in constantly fixing and organizing. I can do a little here and there from this point and once a month I’ll give myself a corner of the room to really fix up. Whether it’s new shelves, sanding and staining, whatever it may be.. small updates will continue. They’ll be posts in the future 🙂
