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| Organize Your Materials |
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| The Pencil Rack |
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| This rugged pencil holder is made from wood, metal and canvas board. The canvas board was more of an aesthetic touch to cover up the assembly inside and to keep it clean in there as well. I also have a piece on the bottom so that it doesn't scratch the surface of a table. |
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| The material separating the pencils are metal pieces that were once cooling vents for electric motors. There is a layer of these on the top and another layer of 'holes' about an inch and a half below the top layer. This keeps the pencils strait but also a little loose so I don't have to work to hard to get the pencil out that I want to use and it also makes it easy to put them back. |
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| I added the handles a few years later and attached them to the wooden framework that everything is attached to. I enjoy making things more functional. Even though the carrier isn't heavy, the handles make it so easy to move from the place I keep it to a table. |
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| Options for Organizing your Paints |
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| The above shelves are shoe racks that my neighbor was throwing out. She asked me if I wanted them and I took them knowing I could do something with them. I had recently moved and when I first had these shelves I just laid my paints in them. |
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| I took boxes and cut them down. Using the cut off pieces I glued them in as dividers for the paint. Without realizing it, I had created something quite useful. When I'm painting I can take a 'rack' of the yellows to my table and use what I need from them and easily put them back. One of my problems as an artist is not putting my paints away. After a large painting is complete I would have dozens of tubes of paint on my table. Using this method I have been able to keep the paints organized without even thinking about it. |
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| Another Two Painting Racks I've Used |
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| These two art racks helped me keep the dust away from an environment that I was in. I was able to close the shelves or doors and still keep everything in place. They were mounted to the wall so I could safely open all of the shelves at once. Although I had to take the paint tubes out individually, it served its purpose very nicely and I used them for over 10 years. The pencil rack that is shown on the top this page was built to fit inside the bottom shelf in the rack on the right. |
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| This is a close up view of the fold up shelf the housed my paints and pencils. |
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| One of my Paint Brush Holders |
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| This was a steal for 50 cents at a garage sale. It took a little modification for me to make it work they way I wanted it to but this is great! It is a kitchen organizer. I turned it upside down and saw the grid work on the bottom and knew I could do something with it. Below are two photos that show how I made this work for me. Enjoy! |
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| I covered up the 'top' of this kitchen organizer with a dense piece of cardboard. I used some copper wire to attach it. |
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| In this photo I'm showing how I wove copper wire close to the bottom in a grid that matched the top so that when I slide my paint brushes in they would not tilt. It is the same concept that I have with the pencil holder that I had created many years before. This works great. A little time, a little wire and this brush holder is far better than just putting them in a jar. |
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