Purge of the Day: Art Bin

My Art Bin is I hope to God not like a lot of people’s Art Bins in that nobody else is allowed to go in there because only I know where all the various knives and poking devices are. And there’s so much crap layered in there that you can’t see the blades, so if you reach in there for some Sculpey unawares, you’re coming out minus a finger. This would have been a useful anti-theft device in school, but now that I’m somewhat of an adult and anybody who breaks in to my place probably isn’t after my vast collection of polymer extrusion discs, it’s time for me to organize.

God, do I not feel like it. And that's just the top layer. 

See, the other problem with my Art Bin is that the stuff that I use on a regular basis has shifted dramatically since the last time I never in my life cleaned it out. When I finally caved in and bought it, it was for the semester I took both Art Direction and Ceramics. So it was mostly filled with cutting/sculpting/drawing-type stuff. 

But then I needed a home for the calligraphy stuff that I'd had in a separate container since high school, and then I didn't have anywhere to put my rapidly-expanding collection of sewing accoutrements. And then there came buttons.

And every time I got a shirt with an extra button attached, that's where it ended up because I am messy and didn't have an place to put those things. I know. I want to punch me, too.  I now have more need of sewing stuff than tiny-model-making stuff, anyway, though, so I'm left with the challenge of organizing ye olde Art Bin and making its contents relevant to my life. I won't bore you with the details of that.

.         .         .

All done, it took over two hours and made me very irritable. But I was left with this:

So it was well worth it. I learned that the little poly bags that buttons come in are a life saver for sorting other tiny items like quill nibs, extrusion discs, or safety pins, and I learned that crusty old paint is useless to keep regardless of how much is left or how much you paid for it.


I also learned that I'm no longer in a place in my life where I need a mold that makes chubby Sculpey babies. College was weird.