When art and craft are a big part of your life, you need space for the materials and equipment that go with it. Creative people apply their gifts not only to the work they produce, but to the spaces where they produce it.

Inside the creative studio shows the work places of painters, jewelry makers, textile and mixed-media artists and more. The studios are as individual as the work.

Some have integrated studios into their living rooms or attics; others have appropriated barns and sheds. All have applied ingenuity to organizing the materials they work with so that the materials are at hand and also a source of inspiration.

The tools of organization come from many sources like restaurant suppliers, flea markets and home improvement centres. Every manner of container is used to sort supplies, including plastic bins, baskets and buckets. They make use of dowels, garden trellis, and pegboard, as well as repurposed furniture.

Each example includes a floor plan for the space and an essay by the artist describing what works for them best.

Untamed clutter can defeat the creative process. These creative types have found ingenious ways to conquer the monster and make a space that inspires their work.

You’ve probably heard the expression, “If you can’t go big, go home.” Well Jay Shafer took it to heart. For Shafer, the big picture is a tiny little living space that provides for just the essentials and not much more. Tumblewee DIY Book of Backyard Sheds & Tiny Houses is his latest offering.

According to the cover, he “is internationally recognized as an expert in small living”. He has been building and living in tiny little homes for 15 years and when he says little, he means it.

In the land of McMansions, Shafer is an ardent supporter of a tiny revolution to create living spaces that are less taxing on ecosystems and economies. The bonus for him has been a mortgage-free existence and more time to pursue other interests, like designing little places for the rest of us.

Shafer is also a realist. While many people may not embrace the extreme, small-space lifestyle, there are lots of other purposes for these wee structures, whether guest house, studio, workshop or retreat.

The book includes plans for tiny houses and box bungalows. You see elevations and floor plans. Amateur builders can order a complete set of drawings from his website.

The portfolio section provides pictures of finished interiors that are carefully crafted to maximize every inch. In fact, one of the most attractive fittings is the Dickinson Marine stainless steel heater which is manufactured for boats.

Part Four shows the building process and covers clearing the building site (including how to fell a tree), establishing a foundation and construction of the exterior shell.

If you want further inspiration for small-scale living, check out Tiny Houses by Mimi Zeiger. It explores “the microgreen side of sustainable architecture” with projects like the House in a Suitcase on page 121. Located on a roof in Barcelona, trunk-like compartments unpack for use.

The April issue of Dwell features a funky and wonderful house built from three 10-by-12-foot modules. You can also see it online. It’s a DIY project that was supervised by architects and is set on 20 lush acres on Kauai.

Now, I want to live small like that.

-Jane

One of my favourite house books belongs to the literature collection on the 4^th floor at Central. Lev Tolstoy and Yasnaya Polyana tells the story of Tolstoy’s creative life at his beautiful and beloved estate in Tula, Russia.

It’s been many years since I have read the companion essays in the book which, I recall, betray the communist sympathies of the authors; however, I love to pull it off the shelf from time to time just to look at the pictures.

The rooms are comfortable and unpretentious and reveal the interests of the occupants. They remain attractive and inviting by today’s standards.

Tolstoy’s study includes a Persian walnut desk that belonged to his father, a long black leather sofa and several arm chairs. The caption mentions a big Italian window and door leading out to the balcony. Although, the window is not in the picture of the study, other photos allow you to imagine its effect on the room.

Sophia Andreyevna’s room includes a handsome writing table where she wrote letters and diaries and kept the household accounts.

On the walls around her bed are photos of husband, children, grandchildren and friends. “All who knew [her] commented upon the forcefulness of her character…”

This comment reminds me of the movie The Last Station* which tells the story of their final days on the estate which Tolstoy surrendered to the government. (It is now a museum.) The 2009 film was based on the novel by Jay Parini. In the screen version, Helen Mirren plays the feisty Sophia and Christopher Plummer is Tolstoy – and it’s another stunning performance from this year’s Academy Award winner.

* Editor's Note: We are unable to link the movie directly to our catalogue, but you if you search the catalogue, you will find it.

Today's blog comes from Candace Weir, Central Library staff:

“Home is a place not only of strong affections, but of entire unreserve: it is life’s undress rehearsal, its backroom, its dressing room.”

-Harriet Beecher Stowe

For nearly 30 years, the photographer David Douglas Duncan and his wife lived near Pablo and Jacqueline Picasso in southern France. In those years, the photographer documented the relationship between Picasso and his last muse in their home.

In Goodbye Picasso, Duncan wrote, “Picasso and Jacqueline lived a frugal, almost monastic existence together. …The villa was bare of modern comforts… and yet it was a noble place, bursting with creations of the artist’s hands and mind.”( p221).

The CPL Arts collection is home to six of Duncan’s books on Picasso. Two of these books, photographed mostly in black and white, read to me like a novel. They are about a home and the design of a life. They are also about the way a creative life shapes the environment around it. The titles are: Picasso & Lump and The Silent Studio.

Lump was a dachshund, a dog muse, whose portrait appears in drawings, paintings and even on plates. You can sneak a peek at some of the delightful photos from the book in this post on the Habitually Chic blog.

The Silent Studio speaks of objects and the echoes of a life. Poignant pictures of empty spaces wait for the sound of sandals slapping along tiled corridors, chairs that wait for the weight of the sitter and a silent studio.

-Candace