phm studio spaces: kaybu

Artist Name: Meghan Burch
Shop Name and Url: Kaybu, www.kaybu.etsy.com
Website: www.kaybu.com
Blog: www.kaybu.com
City: Chicopee, MA

Where in your home/apartment/city is your studio located?
My husband, illustrator Robert Burch, and I made the largest room in our apartment into our studio space. My printing, however, is done on a large table in the kitchen. Luckily our kitchen, (and my husband!) can accomodate my work taking over the whole apartment.




What equipment/tools do you use?

Pencils, pens, notebooks, binders, sewing machine, seam ripper, a good pair of scissors, a rotary cutter, squeegees, large ironing board and a good heavy iron, digital camera, and a Macintosh computer with Photoshop. I also like to experiment, so next I'd like to get an eyelet punch. On my wish/save up for list is an industrial sewing machine and a Mac laptop.

Do you have an inspiration board, and can you tell us what is inspiring you now?
Changing my board is an important exercise. Lately I've been exploring color families with my students, so to herald in Spring and a renewed energy following a vacation in California, I've started to pin up bright paint chips from the hardware store, though a small collection of things from my board's last incarnation remain. They help me keep the vision for the type of feeling I want share through my work. My board also holds small templates that would otherwise be lost.





How do you create best (e.g. do you listen to music while you create and if so what?)
My best time is the morning, but I always have a note/sketchbook with me to jot down ideas wherever/whenever they strike. I turn into a pumpkin around 9:30 pm, so I try get the "thinking" work done before then. Many a piece has needed much help from the seam ripper when I've tried to tackle the tricky work well past dark.

My music listening is mostly dictated by what my husband puts on. Usually it's Sufjan Stevens, Andrew Bird, M. Ward, A Fine Frenzy. Sometimes I want some uptempo to match my energy. One of my favorite mixes includes sounds that transport my imagination to far off places me of places: Ali Farka Toure, Alison Krauss, Yann Tiersen, musicians of the Buena Vista Social Club.




List (3) of your favorite artists
Jacob Hashimoto
Alice Provensen
and of course, my husband, Robert Burch

If yours isn't, what would be your perfect studio?
My dream studio would have a screen washing sink and lots of large table space, sufficient heat in the winter, a couch for thinking, a large tack board, and course, it would be cleaned by elves at night.

Thanks Meghan!