Study/Studio Re-Decoration Part 4: Worktop & Workspace

This is the part of this room that is most used for the purposes of studying and art. I've shared a lot of my Book Nook and meditation space because it's probably the part I feel is most finished and which I am happiest with, as well as being most relevant to the Witchcraft-related topics I've been writing about recently. However, that is not really the primary purpose of the room; literally it's just a corner in an alcove off my study, and my study's main purpose is to be where I study for university and where I do things relating to art.

Work-top and too-small window, computer and shelves

My computer is shoved in the corner by the window to minimise the glare on my screen and to maximise available worktop space, while simultaneously hiding the ugly PC tower as best as I could; modern electronics are completely out of keeping with my aesthetic. Eventually, probably after I upgrade my hardware, I would like to build a new case for the tower based off Gothic architectural aesthetics, and probably a matching screen for my monitor.  

My study is dingy because my window is overly small and my walls are dark. Most of the time I end up working there after dark anyway, so it is not much of a bother as I rely on artificial light anyway, but it does make trying to photograph the room in daylight sometimes a tad difficult, especially in the low sun of early spring. 

Desk and Computer

My desk is a worktop of MDF wrapped in the sort of self-adhesive vinyl for covering kitchen worktops, and it is pretty good as a wipe-down surface. Archimedes has scratched it in a couple of places, but that is fairly minor damage, however if anyone wants to build a desk like this and does crafts involving blades I would definitely recommend a cutting-mat. Raven built the desk/worktop and the legs are re-purposed from the banisters of a stair-rail.

Above the desk are shelves for the art-materials I use most often, so mostly pens of various types as well as my water-colours. The purple box is where I store technical drawing tools, the ivory drawers my stamping materials. For storage I like to try and find aesthetically pleasing containers as many craft items come in bright colours and garish modern packaging, so they get put in tubs and tins - especially vintage tins. On my desk I have used a spice-rack with a spindle for kitchen-towel as more art-material storage; things that come in shallow trays like paints and pencil-sets get put there, as they do not store easily on the main shelving. I use the spindle for tape (pictured) but also kitchen towel as intended. My tablet and my Harry Potter book-lamp are on recipe-book stands. Kitchenalia is useful for craft rooms!   

Shelves, art materials, Gothic arches & candlesticks

While storage is the primary concern, I do also like displaying ornaments on my shelves, and also sourcing ornamental containers, such as the skull tub. I have some of my Gothic arch candle-sconces on the wall next to my shelves, and the ones that are not too close to the ceiling do actually get used. All of them are secondhand; the two with wooden frames are from eBay, the metal Gothic arch was given to me by a colleague, and the moon sconce came from a candle-shop and is there by dint of being the wrong size for the Book Nook.

Archimedes on my desk!

Archimedes is a cat, and therefore it is his prerogative to interrupt my work, so he spends a lot of time on my desk.

I have to at some point do an overview of the whole room, but I think that will wait until I have finished it. There's so much left to do on this room, but a lot of it hinges on getting contractors in; the ceiling is definitely something that requires a lot of that, and I can't afford it [at the time of publishing this article, which is approximately a month after actually writing it, we are now in 'lock-down' due to the Covid-19 pandemic, so even if I could afford it, it would not be possible to bring in contractors]. My ceiling requires first the attention of someone to replace the section that was put up incorrectly and has bowed and to patch the hole from the botched attempt at putting in a light fixture that was done for the previous owner by someone clearly not very good at that sort of thing, then it needs an electrician to put in two over-head lights in the long section, and one overhead light above the Book Nook, with new switches (and maybe a power-outlet inside my cubby), and not until then can I paint my ceiling, put up plaster stars, and add coving to my room. There's also little point in starting work on restoring the star-shaped ceiling lights I bought (very cheap) until I have something to mount them to when they are done.

I have some furniture customisation/up-cycling projects that I would like to share next, but each of those has come to a stumbling block, so are currently incomplete, but when they are done, there will be a book-case where I replaced the wicker shelves with MDF painted with acrylic pour technique, a drawer mounted underneath my desk with a hand-painted drawer-front and skull drawer-knob, a set of miniature drawers for my calligraphy things, my painting the inner-face of my door in violet and viridian, re-painting a set of shelves in with glass doors, and eventually, re-painting a Gothic arches book-case.

This blog will definitely return to some of its original purpose, looking at my Gothic home (hence it's name DOMESTICATED Goth) with more craft-projects, and maybe this year some spooky cooking! I have a back-log of photographs from trips to various spooky places from last year that I would like to share, as well. [Lock-down means no more spooky trips for the foreseeable future, but hopefully they will resume in a few months]. I also have some art of skulls, etc. that I would like to share, and I will be setting up some e-commerce in future so that I can sell my art online. 

Old-School Gothic Lolita Headdress

I swear it isn't green in real life. 

Back in April, I tried my hand at sewing a Gothic Lolita/kuro Lolita headband in the old-school style. These are the fabric head-dresses with lace that were an iconic part of the Lolita style about 10 years ago, but which have since gone out of popularity in favour of bows and bonnets, then more recently, floral crowns and headdresses. I quite like the old-school Kuro and Gothic Lolita styles, so when I finally got my sewing machine running again, I made this.

I hadn't sewn in ages, so it isn't perfect and I know there's several things that could have been tidier (the ribbon criss-crossing it is too loose, for a start, and the whole thing's been worn a few times before this photo was taken so it could have done with ironing flat again, the corners of the crochet lace weren't sewn the flattest, the bows at either end need to be more secure because they keep pivoting, etc.) I had to boost the photograph to make the headdress visible as it's all black-on-black; the blacks match better in real life! Other than that, I am quite happy with it. I hope to make a second one at some point, and improve on this.

Project: Step-By-Step Halloween Cards 1

This one of the styles of Halloween cards I will be making this year. I don't see many Halloween (and certainly no Samhain) cards for sale in the high-street card shops in the UK. I know it is possible to buy some very lovely cards online, and have custom cards printed, but I quite enjoy paper-crafts of various sorts, so I will be making my own.

Components for card making:
Card blank, sprayed card blank, black paper, "lightning bolts",
marbled paper, drawing of a Devil-skull.

To save a bit of time, I have bought some plain black card blanks and matching envelopes (from The Works for £1.49). I would have had to have bought sheets of black card and black paper anyway and this actually worked out cheaper than buying the card and paper! The first thing I did was mist the cards and envelopes with Magical Shimmer Mist, which is a suspension of shimmery metallic particles in an adhesive spray. It comes in a variety of colours, but for this project I have used silver. You can get similar effects with water-based silver paint and splattering, but it is more time-consuming to achieve. 

Shimmery shimmery shimmery...

As the card blanks were drying, I set about drawing the pictures for the front of the cards. Each person will be receiving a different image on their card. For the purposes of this blog, I have photographed the making of a particular card  with a Devil-skull as the image. I drew it in cheap black biro on ordinary utility white paper - no fancy materials. 

Close-up of fanged skull

I cut the drawing out, then traced around the drawing onto marbled paper (HobbyCraft, less than 50p per sheet) and drew a slightly larger rectangle around that, and cut out the piece of marbled paper. I then took a sheet of black paper and drew around the marbled paper onto it with a white pencil, and then drew a larger rectangle around that. I put the drawing, rectangle of marbled paper, and the rectangle of black paper aside (into my crafting tray). 

Lightning bolts

The next step was to cut out the jagged lightning-bolts. I cut these out of more white utility paper, laying them out on the now-dry card blank to see what size they needed to be, using the two paper rectangles as a guide, and how many I wanted, and also to get a better idea on design. They are quite finicky to cut out, and easy to tear, so once each was cut out, it went straight into the crafting tray for safe keeping.

Layered papers

The last step was gluing it all together in order. I started with gluing on the black rectangle, then arranging all the lightning bolts, then the marbled paper, and finally the drawing.

Finished card

I decorated the envelope in the same way, with the same layers, papers and materials, and with a similar design (with lightning) except with an address label instead of a drawing, but because it is an address label, I am not posting a picture of it up on the internet. 

Solstice, Christmas and Decorations

This is a blog, with lots of pictures,about how my partner and I have decorated our apartment for the season. I'm going to do a separate blog about the food. That blog will hopefully also have lots of pictures.

This is our very first Solstice living together in Scotland! This is very exciting!

My partner is very traditional about Christmas. He comes from an Irish Catholic background, but was brought up in rural Wales, and to a much larger family than mine. His Christmas vision is that of a family gathering, of traditional foliage and red-green-gold, and his favourite part of the Christmas tradition is the food. To him, Christmas dinner is a gift to the family, the best gift of them all. My partner cooks to share.

I was brought up by my mad-scientist Dad, and after Mother left, Christmas was only ever vaguely traditional in our house and I, a batty Pagan and latterly a Goth, was left in charge of decorating, and had been from an early age (my Dad was a brave, brave man, letting me do the Christmas decorations as a kid. One year I made all the baubles out of K-Nex and tried to build a tree...) so my vision is of a quiet Christmas, outside playing in snow, or at home admiring the tree, with a silver-purple-blue-black and ice, snow, a winter theme and my favourite part of Christmas is decorating the tree and turning the lights on. Christmas was never really a true "family" thing as there was only my Dad and I involved, not the extended family. We were a family of sorts, but it wasn't exactly a gathering. To me, Christmas was a time to be creative, to decorate things and make presents.

These are pretty much opposites, they're even opposite colours, but we're trying to bring them together. There are similarities to our approaches; both of us are Pagan, and my partner had time off on the Solstice, but he is working on Christmas day, so that at least gives us a focus; we both like decorating the tree, we both think it is a brilliant occasion for candles. Together we have made our small but cosy apartment into a festive one.

The Solstice is the shortest day, and is about the changing seasons and the knowledge that the days are going to get longer, and while it might get worse before it gets better, Spring WILL come. One can celebrate a secular Solstice, which is simply a celebration of the celestial patterns and changing seasons, as well as a Pagan one, so if anyone wants a less sarcastic approach to an alternative to Christmas than Festivus, a secular Solstice is a possibility.

In the UK, the Solstice marks midwinter, but apparently in places with a continental climate (the USA, at least, maybe also in mainland Europe) the Solstice is actually considered the start of winter, because although the days are getting longer, there is a lag in the change in actual weather, meaning that the worst is still to come. As you may have noticed from my previous post, Scotland has winter already! We've had a few good coverings of snow, and I have seen the most beautiful sparkling white snow on the mountains. It will probably be worse in January, and maybe early February, but snow started falling in October in a light dust on the mountains, and was definitely around in November, and Samhain (Halloween) definitely makes more sense as the start of Winter here, and Imbolc (Candlemas) as the beginning of Spring. I haven't seen Spring in Scotland yet, but I've seen snowdrops in February when I lived in England. The UK being islands detached from mainland Europe, does not share the same climate as the majority of Europe (from what I remember of Brittany, northern France has a similar one, though) but has a maritime climate, and one also affected by the Gulf Stream.

Most Pagans see the natural world (and broader Universe) as Divine, with varying theologies from pantheism to polytheism, so each Pagan has a different way of seeing it in a religious sense. To me I celebrate the fact that I live in a Universe so wonderfully arranged, by perfect chance, that there are perpetual cycles, an order to existence, and remember that however bad life gets, it eventually does get better. I see the Divine as intrinsic to the Universe, so to me the geometry of the heavens is holy, the cycles of life are holy, the physics that means our universe sustains life is holy, the sun is holy, the moon is holy, the snow is holy, the trees are holy, the mountains are holy, etc. etc. etc. I don't ascribe to any literal interpretation of any mythology, or have an anthropomorphic vision of deity, but in Neo-Pagan mythology (which is basically poetry based on many older mythologies) the Solstice is when the Sun is reborn of the Dark Goddess. For lucky druids this can involve a battle (sometimes literal, staged with swords) between two men, one representing the Holly King and the other the Oak King.

Ah, Paganism, we have a festival of death (Samhain/Halloween) a festival of sex and fire (Beltane/May Day) and a festival where we get to have sword fights if we're Druids - we're so Metal :P

As the Solstice is a celebration of returning light, we're having a fiery solar theme to our celebrations. Borrowing from a Chinese New Year tradition, and adapting it for the solar new year, we're going to light a sky-lantern, and we're going to paint our wishes for the coming year on it first. We've bought a completely bio-degradable lantern with a bamboo frame because the paper disintegrates pretty quickly and if the metal-framed ones land on farm land, the metal-frames can pose a danger to livestock and wildlife. I don't want to honour the changes in nature by doing something that's going to harm nature. It's obviously important not to let them off near airports (I think we're far enough from the city airport) and and power-lines. They seem to be quite popular in the West now, and I think they're brilliant. I always find it quite moving to watch them float away until they're invisible, getting tinier and tinier as they go. The winds were actually too high to launch our lantern, so that will have to wait until it is calmer out, but we will launch it with our wishes!

We've got lots of solar themed decorations, including a sun topping our tree. The "sun" is actually a gold and orange 'star' with many points and a circular design, but as out sun IS a star, astronomically speaking, that is fine by me. I picked it up in Pound Stretcher reduced down to 99p. I thought that was a real bargain, cheaper than making one, which was my original idea. The round sun mirror is one I bought in a charity shop really cheaply a couple of years ago, but the gilt on the edges of the flames really catch the light and as we live in quite a small flat, it is nice to have a mirror, it makes the space feel a small bit lighter. Our living room has a a reasonable size window, but daylight is scarce at this time of the year, so the mirror's main duty is reflecting the candles and lights back into the room. The jar candles are really useful, but I can't remember where I bought them, I think Cargo in Henley-on-Thames. They were originally lanterns, but I took the wire loops off and have been using them ever since. I've taken them on night-time candle-lit picnics, I've had them light up home-made oriental dinners, and now I've got them lighting up my Solstice decor. Those jars carry lots of warm, romantic memories of lovely evenings with my partner, so it is quite important to me to have them up at this time of the year. The sun candle-holder is being lit by a tea-light in another, horizontal candle-holder. The tea-light holder was a gift from my wonderful friend Dawn, back when I was still at school, and the vertical sun candle-stick is one I've had so long that I have forgotten where I got it from, but my guess is going to be a charity shop. I got back in touch with Dawn a couple of years ago, and we're pen pals/internet friends now. She has a blog about being a writer.

Solstice Decor (Photographs by the ::Other Half::, editing by me)

In order for me to satiate my desire to have a few festive trimmings in Gothic style, I have a second Christmas tree. This tree is has no warm reds, no gold at all, and lots of black and silver. It is synthetic, only three feet tall, and the tree itself is black. Hanging on its boughs are purple, silver and black baubles, a silver bead chain, and purple star-shaped battery LED lights. I painted my own designs, in metallic purple and silver nail-polish, on the larger black gloss baubles. I am on a budget, so my baubles were from Poundland, Pound Stretcher and Tesco, and the tree itself, as well as the bead-chain and lights, were also from Tesco. The tree was £5 and I spent about £12 in total on decorations for it, most of that spent on the lights. The lights I am planning to use after Christmas as decor for our room, as it is in a purple, black and silver theme, and I like fairy-lights. I found some real glass mini-baubles (the perfect size for such a small tree!) in Pound Stretcher for £1.99, and they had lots of nice budget baubles. If I were rich, I would only have glass baubles and wooden ornaments, but I am unemployed and we're not a wealthy household, so I have mostly plastic baubles and am slowly (very slowly) accumulating better quality baubles. Not all the baubles are yet as I would like; the small glittery purple baubles from Tesco, for example, are a little too close to pink for my liking, while the metallic ones from the same tub are a much cooler shade. £17 is quite a large chunk of my budget, but as this is all from scratch, and will be used for years and years from now, hopefully a recurring Yuletide feature of my gothic boudoir (well, attempted boudoir), I don't mind it so much, especially as a large chunk of that is on the lights, which will be used year-round until the bulbs go, and as they are LEDs, that might take a while.

The "Gothmas" Tree (Photographed by The HouseCat)

On the main tree are some rather fancy black decorations, in onion and teardrop shapes, but these will also be turned into house decorations after Christmas. I am planning on tying them into two matching bunches with some broad black ribbon and tying them at either end of the curtain pole in our room. I also bought some beautiful LV lights from Tesco, which are just white, but each bulb has a punched metal orb around it, and these were only £6, so a real bargain. The other half, being a little bit taller than me, strung them up around the curtain pole in our room, and I think they look rather nice. If I buy something a bit dearer, I want it to have a life that's more than just for Christmas time. I know at £1.50 each, the baubles might not be considered that dear to some, but I'm on quite a limited budget. Anyway, the baubles look more expensive than they are, and I think combined with some broad ribbon and possibly a few beaded details that they would add a bit of classy fanciness to our bedroom rather than look like tacky Christmas decorations at the wrong time of the year. Once I've actually got everything done in our bedroom, I will take pictures of the new lights and the curtain-pole decorations made from baubles.

In our living room we have the seasonal spectacular itself, the Solstice Tree. As you can see on the full length picture, our tree is over six feet and festooned with baubles. The tree is always my favourite part of the seasonal festivities, and has been since the Christmas trees of my childhood. I absolutely adore decorating the tree and try my best to keep it up as long as possible. My partner wanted a more traditional colour scheme, and I did my best not to drown the tree in black baubles (my favourite sort of baubles ;-) ). The Other Half kept jesting that I'd not be able to get ALL the baubles onto the tree, but lo, I managed it.

Solstice Tree (Photographed by the ::Other Half::)

The pine-cones are my partner's favourite decoration on the tree. I've got to admit these ones my partner bought, but it's easy enough to make them if you find some suitable sized pine cones, spray them/paint them gold (I prefer paint to spray; no aerosol) and then tie some gold ribbon around the top. Next year, if I am less stressed and busy, I shall make some extra special pine-cones for the tree. The clear baubles with snowflakes on are my favourite not-black baubles and they used to hang on my Dad's tree. They remind me of home. My Dad sent me a box of baubles from home, and it is nice having a few things on the tree to remind me of Dad. I used to have more clear snowflake baubles, but Kuro, my cat, knocked the entire tree over last year and a few baubles met a premature demise.My partner really likes the red baubles, and I bought him some gold lantern baubles, to him the tree should be warm, in colours and in light.

The red drop bauble was painted by myself, with nail-polish. The fixing at the top where the string goes through is also painted green, and the bottom tip is dipped in green. I did 12 of these in total. I use nail-polish because it is durable and gives a good metallic finish and I have it in the house anyway, so don't have to go out and buy paint especially. I like painting things somewhere between tribal patterns and canal-boat brush-stroke designs. I did these the same way as I did the baubles on my goth tree. Re-painting cheap baubles is a good way of having unique baubles.

Solstice Tree (Photographs by the ::Other Half::)

In our living room we don't have much counter space, and having no fire, no mantlepiece to hang stockings or cards on, so I have strung the cards up above two door-frames, and currently two strands of cotton thread, adding more as we get more cards. I decided it would save space and if I just doubled up the thread, putting another string below the first, rather than put more across the room. It's a corner of the room between the boiler cupboard door and the hallway door, so it's not a very used area, and so we're not likely to catch our heads on the cards. Talking of cards, cards from previous years with the pictures cut out make cheap and green gift tags. If it's a scenic card, you can cut several small sections of the scene for quite a few tags from one card.

I'd really like to see pictures of other people's Christmas, Solstice, Hannukah, etc. decorations, especially that of other goths. Has anyone else got a "gothmas tree"? Have you put your decorations up yet? What are your family traditions for this time of year? Does anyone celebrate a religious Christian Christmas? Does anyone else celebrate a Pagan Solstice? Please comment and tell me what you'll be doing, even if you're completely un-festive and just want peace and quiet. I can empathise with being un-festive, after working in retail several Christmases running, finding Christmas a miserable time of the year for past family reasons, and generally being grouchy, I ended up with a black Santa hat with "Bah Humbug" embroidered on its fluffy white brim, and mutating into the unholy product of Scrooge and the Grinch, but my partner seems to have cured this. What music will you be playing this Christmas? Until I was 20 I was heavily involved in church and cathedral choirs, and still love the traditional carols and anthems. Please do comment!

Bane, at Goth It Yourself, the Gothic home decor and project blog, has some really lovely pictures of her ::snowy solstice::. It wasn't snowy here in the Highlands - our lovely snow got washed away a few days ago.