Experience
Experience makes a great teacher. All you need to do is observe infants and toddlers experiencing and interacting with the world around them to come to a similar conclusion. We continue to learn and grow with each passing year.
The Design Wall Experience
Last week, in her post, Rebecca shared her struggles creating a functional design wall for her new studio space. When I shared with her a bit about my design wall, she asked if I had a post about it. I didn’t. However, I volunteered to write on the topic this week. This is not the first design wall the SEDOSO (Senior Executive Director of Studio Operations) and I have come up with. Several moves and experience have led us to the current iteration.
Would you believe my very first design wall was simply a length of gridded flannel taped to my dining room wall? Now that is an experience I would happily forget. Let’s just say it wasn’t unusual for pieces to plummet to the floor if someone walked by.
Essential Design Element
Experience taught us that foam board wrapped in flannel is a great start. Foam board typically comes 4′ w x 8′ in the US. It is easily cut with a box cutter if this is too large. Also, for a larger design wall boards can be placed side by side with the abutting edges secured in place along the back side with duct tape. Do NOT secure the front side. You don’t want to have to push pins through the duct tape.
The next step is to secure the wrapped board to the wall. The SEDOSO loves working with wood. He took a 3/4″ board and crafted the hooks in the above image. The large hole through the hook allows a screw/bolt to pass through and fix the hook to the wall. It’s very important to screw into the studs in the wall and not just the wall. The lower half of the wall could rest in hooks as well. However, the floor also works to support the design wall.
I use my design wall not just to layout blocks and test designs. Experience has taught me it is perfect to hang a work in progress so that I can get distance to analyze the design. I also use it to keep track of paper work. Ciel de Noyer, along with the gridded blue print happened to be on the design wall when this photo was taken. On the right side are my notes and plans for the 2024 Rainbow Scrap Challenge. The chest of drawers to the right of the design wall hold half finished blocks. Experience has taught me to stay organized and uncluttered for efficiency.
Rainbow Scrap Challenge
This week I was laser focused on making my orange crumb fabric. The focus paid off! Last week I shared the blue print for it.
Here is the finished product. Amazing how many scraps I was able to plow through to create this.
I’m linking up to the following posts:
