I look around as I sit at a freshly decluttered desk in my studio to write for the first time in 2026. This 8-foot by 10-foot room has been the work area for countless projects and creations for over 40 years.
I used to design and make jewelry here until a few years ago when my vision for it became compromised. I still have all the equipment because you never know. What I love about my studio is that any time I enter, my shoulders lower and I smile and think, what do I want to make?
The space may be small, but the room is packed with all manner of art supplies and tools. Each wall is lined with shelves on which sit books, paper, punches, a variety of scissors, cups of pens and tiny drawers filled with beads, earwires, clasps, and stones. Other drawers hold split rings, jump rings, crimp beads, posts, ear clips, and lobster claws.
There are anvils on wooden stumps and hammers lining the wall near a small TV. Drawers are filled with rubber stamps, pads, strands of pearls, waxed linen, and small ziplock bags. Wire and metal sheet stand upright in folders tucked between bookshelves.
My writing area is right next to the only window in the room. From here I can see chickadees and juncoes at the feeder below. The birch tree, loaded with seeds this year, also draws the goldfinches. My hope is that the redpolls will drop down from their boreal hangouts to party with my other feathery faithfuls. If they do, I’ll be right here in my studio to watch. Redpolls have not been around for a few years.
Tight against the windowsill is a right-angle piece of lobster trap wire, screwed into place with a thin scrap of tire rubber. Bruce installed it for me years ago to store my 19 various needle nose pliers. I might not be using them now for jewelry, but they come in handy when I need to make an armature of wire for my latest needle felted figure.
Needle felting takes place here because it’s the cleanest desk. For that same reason this is the desk that I sit at almost every morning for a 7 a.m. Zoom meeting of like-minded friends.
The other two work areas are for the paper arts. I work on little Christmas ornaments in November and December (made from those old jewelry box tops I no longer need!). There is white glue for the collage backgrounds and super-glue for the tiny figurines. Scraps of paper and glue are everywhere.
By January, all that stuff fits under another work bench until next November. It is as out of sight as my unfinished jewelry inventory. After the holidays I have a wide horizon of opportunity for artistic endeavors. I’ll start work on some larger collages and I’ll do another series of needle-felted party birds like I did last year.
I’ll rejoin my Facebook Drawing-a-Day group from Colorado for the month of February, a swell group of artists who draw at all levels. We applaud each other’s efforts; camaraderie and commitment in the doldrums of winter.
In the summer we are often asked by day visitors, “What do you do here in the winter?” There are all manner of answers to that one, but quite a few of us just spend time recovering our energy with quiet activity at home. It tends to get pretty windy in the winter which does nothing to make me want to go outside. Though the island is starkly beautiful I am content to wander the landscape of my own little studio. If I ever doubt the value of my time spent here I just remember the words of my friend Ashley Bryan: “When you’re making art you’re not doing anything wrong!” In my studio there is always something to do right.
Barbara Fernald lives on Islesford (Little Cranberry Island). She may be contacted at fernald244@gmail.com.
