Get to Know (Ep.2): My New + Old Studio! (Patreon)

Hello, Patrons and Friends! It's been a while! I hope you're doing well, hopefully things are starting to look up for you in this new fresh year. Brew yourself a cup of something nice, and let me take you on a tour of my new studio space in Seattle! And after I show you around my space, I'd love to hear about where you like to work on art, and your dream studio space.

I shared in my last post that my partner and I, after having moved to live with my parents in Virginia for a few months, moved back to Seattle in January. 

Although it was as stressful as the first time to move during a pandemic, we were this time able to find a two bedroom apartment in Ballard for only slightly more than we paid for our first apartment. In fact, its almost exactly the same as our first apartment, but on a higher floor (more light!) and with a second bedroom to use as our studio space. 

And having started Ragonia from a small desk in my kitchen, I am so excited to see how I can use this space to grow my business and career further.

My most often used corner by the window, the computer desk! Featuring the PC that I built last fall (p.s. I plan on making an article on how I did this), our former-kitchen table-turned-desk, my printer and label printer, and an IKEA Raskog cart full of art supplies.

Rug was ON SALE at IKEA (and I'm obsessed), most all furniture from IKEA, red desk chair from Amazon.

The whole back wall had huge greasy, old sliding closet doors. I pulled them all down and leaned them at the back of the closet to have more space for storage. (I'll hang them back up when we move out.)

These shelves that hold all my products and packing materials are $35 HEJNE shelves from IKEA. The closet has a built in shelf above that I'll use to store my extra packing supplies and products. Or maybe to decorate with art and plants?

Opposite my computer desk is my packing and spread-out desk, for packing online orders or any art tasks that require more room than my computer desk. 

The desk was my folding travel market desk in the Before Times, and probably will eventually be replaced for something less ugly. 

The RASKOG by my computer desk is especially helpful because I can easily wheel it over to this larger desk if I need it.

Shipping shelves close-up! On-hand packing materials are in the upper right, and I restock them as needed from the lower and upper shelves.

All other shelves hold my current inventory of products, with lots of extra room saved on the side shelves for expansion.

The shelves holding my pins, earrings, and greeting cards are what I normally bring with me to conventions (and probably won't be in use for a while.) They're wooden shelves from Clear Displays. I'll definitely need to do some scouring on the Container Store website for even better product organization, especially as I expand my inventory.

Pumpkin's studio supervision office above my computer and stock of sketchbooks and paper! She's gotta keep a sharp eye on productivity, but I've seen her snoozing up there, if you can believe it.

We discovered that Pumpkin's perfect cat bed is:

1. High up on a shelf 

2. Near where we work 

3. In a cardboard box with a towel over it.

Yes, that's it. She loves it so much. This is just a cardboard box that I attached with some scrap fabric to make it a little cuter.

I'm also very proud of my little homemade print storage solution: These are boxes made from my display grids, with individual shelves made by taping four corners of a grid to the sides. I got the idea from this blog post, but I didn't have zip ties, just packing tape.

Packing zone close-up! SKÅDIS pegboard is from IKEA, and holds business cards, stamps, pens, washi tape, do not bend stickers, all the things I quickly need when I pack orders. 

I've wanted the MOPPE mini storage drawers for so long because I think they're so cute, and now that I have it it's mostly just used for odds and ends. And to hold my packing tape and scale.

The built-in bookshelf mostly holds my art books, old photos, old doodles, old filled sketchbooks, and previous years' Passion Planners. Still plenty of room to expand here. This is definitely where I'll keep things to inspire my when I'm feeling stuck (it always helps me to flip through an old sketchbook or inspiring art book.)

Zach's side of the studio! Where works on his concept art and video games and Blender and what not. It's dark and spooky over there, who knows what kind of creepy things he concocts... 

JK, I love having a studio partner to shout over to when I'm stuck or need validation. Or to remind me to delete Instagram when I get distracted.

And there we have it, the newest home of Ragonia Art! This studio space still needs a lot of work, for sure. Namely ART on the walls, which I plan to order and hang as soon as I have time. I guess that says something about my priorities with my space: in the past it was decoration first, now it's mostly about function first. 

But I'm still loving it so far, and can see lots of room to grow here. And having all my business things in one place definitely speeds up packing and helps with my shaky productivity.

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Now! I thought it might be fun to take a quick look back at my three past Studio Spaces since starting Ragonia in 2018:

2018: Ragonia's First Studio Space!

In a corner of the kitchen in our first apartment. Ah, so cute and hopeful and spring-y. 

See that kitchen table? It's my desk now!

A hand-me-down desk from my friend, a wooden Goodwill chair that I still love and have in my kitchen. I did all my first portraits and earrings at this desk. 

Actually, working at this desk was very uncomfortable, but I had felt so inspired and excited about having my own space and business anyway. And I ended up working as a barista at two different cafes to supplement my small art income, so I wasn't full time at that desk anyway.

Also my feet got SO COLD working here because I had no rug and our mail slot opened under the desk.

Check out my 2018 Year-in-Review if you'd like to read about my first year in Illustration!

2019-2020: Ragonia's Living Room Studio!

In January of 2019 I quit my barista job to double-down on my art career, and expanded my studio space into the living room to make room for that. 

Check out this Weekly Update for a tour of the studio back then. Remember when I did WEEKLY updates?

Zach and I shared one bookshelf in the middle, and I kept all my products and packaging in the back storage room, so I had to go back and forth to pack orders.

Giving myself more room for the business definitely helped my career grow those years. And more importantly, giving myself a more comfortable desk helped me work longer without hurting myself.

Check out my 2019 Year-in-Review for my first year working full-time in illustration!

2020: Ragonia's Temporary Parent's Basement Studio!

Our temporary studio space in my parent's basement in Virginia was our first time with a whole separate studio room, and we absolutely loved it. Having a specific space for packaging and drawing was hugely helpful, and of course the view to the woods and animals outside was beautiful.

I will just say, I don't recommend working in chairs like those. Desk chairs were sold out everywhere in September 2020, but working in a hard kitchen chair like that, even with a blanket to cushion, was VERY uncomfortable.

Since I was saving money on rent for a few months I was also able to purchase and build a computer for the first time since my laptop died in 2018! I used to borrow Zach's PC for streaming, taxes, printing package labels, Photoshop, anything I couldn't use my ipad for. But since the pandemic he'd been home full-time, and it was inconvenient to share a PC. Having a PC of my own is a big step in my ability to use certain programs, stream on Twitch, store my own files, etc.

To read more about that studio space check out this monthly update. 

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So that's my new studio, and a little look back at past studios! It's so satisfying to see the growth of my career reflected in the changing of my work space. I feel like each move is a step closer to my ultimate career goal of opening a joint studio space/retail shop/shared community workshop and printing space. (Like Kate Bingaman-Burt's studio, Outlet in Portland.)

If you've made it this far, hello and THANK YOU! I'd love to hear about your studio space! Here's some prompts for things I'd love to hear about:

• Where do you work? 
• Where have you worked in the past? 
• How has your space improved or priorities changed?
• What's most important for you to have in your work space?
• What do you use to keep your space comfortable and functional?
• What are you dream studio workspace goals?

Leave a comment on this post if you like, or BETTER YET share some photos and details about your studio in the Community Tab! I LOVE to see pictures of peoples studio/desk/work spaces of any size, and I'm sure many of you do too.

Thanks for joining my in this studio space tour, and I really look forward to getting to know a bit about your work space. 

See you soon!

xoxo, Ragon