Studio hack for affordable easel

First off, I'll be going to a Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday blogging schedule starting today.  Writing daily helped get me back in the routine again quickly but my bigger goal is to find a sustainable pace and rebuild my studio practice in a way that fits into a balanced life.  Writing every day was getting stressful so I'm cutting it back.  Looking for that sweet spot where I feel productive but not pushed.

Today's achievement was finding a nice studio hack for an easel.  The only one at Daniel Smith that was meant for table top use cost over $200.  Since painting is not a big part of my process, this seemed like much more than I needed to spend.  On the drive home, I started thinking of ways I could improvise while waiting for anything I found online to ship.  My iPad holder fell over as did the plate display holder I had in a closet.  But my quilting rulers rack worked great.  And is available for $9 from Amazon so I'm ordering a couple more to use for painting.

16x16 plexiglass sheet in rack, 9x12 sketchpad on left

I already have several of the plexiglass sheets around because it's an easy way to tape a sketch underneath and put lightweight silk on top and paint.  It also cleans off easily and is lightweight.  I got them made at Tap Plastics here in Bellevue and had them round the edges slightly so my silk doesn't snag and I don't scratch myself.

Next up, trying out the watercolor paints I'm not positive I want to keep.  I'm keeping the Derwent Inktense pencils because they are wonderful for detail work on a fabric piece.  I can add both shadows and highlights and either leave them dry if I want the sharper line and the piece will be behind glass or I can use some fabric paint extender and get that watercolor wash and turn it into permanent paint.  I also will be trying out the sushi soy sauce dishes I got at Daiso.  I like porcelain in the studio because even acrylic paint won't stick to it.  I have chopstick holders that I use to prop my paintbrushes on so using the soy sauce dishes just continues the theme.  I'm sometimes easily amused.

watercolor pencils & granulating paint with soy sauce dishes

I had hoped I was done with the paint experiments but that was before I checked all the drawers in my studio to be sure I'd gotten all of them.  Nope, watercolors left.

This next week my goals are:  1) to refine the fire breathing dragon and enlarge it, 2)  mix dyes and soy wax dye cream in Seahawk colors and dragon colors, 3) create dragon silkscreen and 4) dye paint both dragonflies and dragon samples.  All of these will need the dye table cleared of clutter and made ready.  But after doing them, I should have the first version of a fire breathing dragon pillow and a Seahawk color silk scarf.