Earrings - Have You Seen Them?

Have You Seen These???

You can vote for them if you want until April 15, 2011.

If you have seen me in the last couple of weeks, I have probably been wearing them, and chances are, you've seen them...

They are super long and dangly!

Which somehow makes it seem "fun" to wear them. 

Do you have "fun" earrings?

Or are your earrings just "pretty"?

Maybe it is the way they bump against everything - my hair, neck & shoulders.

When weeding for the MG Native Plant Garden: 

"oh, hello there long dangly earrings - I can see you!"

They have not gotten stuck (one thing I was testing for) in sweaters or hair - which I totally expected it to do with the way the surface of the pieces appear. 

Shows they are rough looking, but looks can be deceiving.

My winter jacket pictured in the first photo - well, that collar is high, and they have gotten tucked in between it and my neck when it's zipped up. 

That annoyance gives me more reason to want warmer weather here:

I want to wear dangly fun earrings!!!

Here is what I used to design these earrings:

Joanne Zekowski Glass Beads

I just saw Joanne yesterday at Bead Fest Wire in Philadelphia and picked up these (some will be making an Etsy shop appearance paired up with some of my chocolate shards):

In 2011 Joanne will be out at Bead & Button in Milwaukee, Bead Fest Philadelphia and a few trunk shows… 

But no website, so get them when you can!

I used a set of my chocolate clay shards - the ones that I have will be listed in my Etsy shop under the "shards" section. 

I call them "toggle bars" because the hole is in the middle & they could be used as toggles in your necklace design if you wanted:

And some seed beads and Vintaj brass pieces and 20ga - 22ga vintage brass wire (also from Vintaj).

By the way - I entered this pair of earrings into the monthly Vintaj Blog challenge for "Woodland Blush" - They are #13 over on the voting blog post.

Voting is open 4/11/11 to 4/15/11… 

Not that you have to vote for my pieces or anything - vote for your favorite.

I am just proud of myself that I actually sat down and made a pair of earrings - that are very wearable & fun - from some new and some old bead stash that I've been hoarding for YEARS!

If I could reach it, I would be patting myself on the back.

So I'll just see if maybe we can go out for Mexican Food for dinner instead (yum!)

Bead Fest Wire is going on this weekend in Philadelphia.

You can get my different clay shards from Darlene of D7Studio in Booth #302.

And find Joanne all the way on the other side wall - totally opposite of where Darlene is.

Also, while you are shopping there at Darlene's table (OMG - you should see the great stuff she is carrying now!!!) stop and say Hi to Kelly Russell of BeadFuddled! She is there selling her fabulous pieces, components and new handmade nuno felt. 

Drool, drool, drool…

Thanks for stopping by!

Earrings - Have You Seen Them?

Have You Seen These???

You can vote for them if you want until April 15, 2011.

If you have seen me in the last couple of weeks, I have probably been wearing them, and chances are, you've seen them...

They are super long and dangly!

Which somehow makes it seem "fun" to wear them. 

Do you have "fun" earrings?

Or are your earrings just "pretty"?

Maybe it is the way they bump against everything - my hair, neck & shoulders.

When weeding for the MG Native Plant Garden: 

"oh, hello there long dangly earrings - I can see you!"

They have not gotten stuck (one thing I was testing for) in sweaters or hair - which I totally expected it to do with the way the surface of the pieces appear. 

Shows they are rough looking, but looks can be deceiving.

My winter jacket pictured in the first photo - well, that collar is high, and they have gotten tucked in between it and my neck when it's zipped up. 

That annoyance gives me more reason to want warmer weather here:

I want to wear dangly fun earrings!!!

Here is what I used to design these earrings:

Joanne Zekowski Glass Beads

I just saw Joanne yesterday at Bead Fest Wire in Philadelphia and picked up these (some will be making an Etsy shop appearance paired up with some of my chocolate shards):

In 2011 Joanne will be out at Bead & Button in Milwaukee, Bead Fest Philadelphia and a few trunk shows… 

But no website, so get them when you can!

I used a set of my chocolate clay shards - the ones that I have will be listed in my Etsy shop under the "shards" section. 

I call them "toggle bars" because the hole is in the middle & they could be used as toggles in your necklace design if you wanted:

And some seed beads and Vintaj brass pieces and 20ga - 22ga vintage brass wire (also from Vintaj).

By the way - I entered this pair of earrings into the monthly Vintaj Blog challenge for "Woodland Blush" - They are #13 over on the voting blog post.

Voting is open 4/11/11 to 4/15/11… 

Not that you have to vote for my pieces or anything - vote for your favorite.

I am just proud of myself that I actually sat down and made a pair of earrings - that are very wearable & fun - from some new and some old bead stash that I've been hoarding for YEARS!

If I could reach it, I would be patting myself on the back.

So I'll just see if maybe we can go out for Mexican Food for dinner instead (yum!)

Bead Fest Wire is going on this weekend in Philadelphia.

You can get my different clay shards from Darlene of D7Studio in Booth #302.

And find Joanne all the way on the other side wall - totally opposite of where Darlene is.

Also, while you are shopping there at Darlene's table (OMG - you should see the great stuff she is carrying now!!!) stop and say Hi to Kelly Russell of BeadFuddled! She is there selling her fabulous pieces, components and new handmade nuno felt. 

Drool, drool, drool…

Thanks for stopping by!

Chocolate Clay Toggles and Multi Hole Pieces

Here is a quick post to let you all know that I have listed a few new items into my Etsy Shop under the Shards section.

Chocolate Clay Toggle "set". If they make it out of the kiln similar enough, they are listed as a set.
Sets are harder to "make on purpose". And I rather enjoy making them where maybe they will come out...

I like the way that some listings on Etsy show up close detail of the piece to draw the viewer in.

Makes you think - what the heck is that?

Porcelain Clay Shards in Green Sea Glass glaze.

Ohhhh… I love the color & texture…

Then you can decide if you need to have it immediately even though you are not sure what to do with it (I have a lot of items like this just because I loved the surface color & texture) or maybe just favorite it until later.

Three Hole Chocolate Clay Shard.

Although, I do have to say - I am really getting to the point of moving away from production clay and doing what I want in it.

So you might want to get it while you can… 

Changes on the horizon for this clay gal!

Oh, and check out this Etsy Mud Team treasury from JD Wolfe Pottery 

"The Break Up" which features my Chocolate Clay Shard Toggles:

So very cool…

I love these textures and patina colors…

What do you think about these pieces in my shop?

Wouldn't they look awesome used in pieces for the Vintaj Woodland Blush DesignChallenge?

Here is another Vintaj blog link to a post with some inspiring pieces for the Woodland Blush Design Challenge.

I'm seriously considering making at least one item to submit.

Maybe I'll go right now and work on it…

Submissions are due by noon on April 8th (CST).

Would love to see someone submit some designs using my shard pieces with the Vintaj pieces, maybe some of Shannon's (MissFickleMedia) pieces too…

Guess we'll see...

Chocolate Clay Toggles and Multi Hole Pieces

Here is a quick post to let you all know that I have listed a few new items into my Etsy Shop under the Shards section.

Chocolate Clay Toggle "set". If they make it out of the kiln similar enough, they are listed as a set.
Sets are harder to "make on purpose". And I rather enjoy making them where maybe they will come out...

I like the way that some listings on Etsy show up close detail of the piece to draw the viewer in.

Makes you think - what the heck is that?

Porcelain Clay Shards in Green Sea Glass glaze.

Ohhhh… I love the color & texture…

Then you can decide if you need to have it immediately even though you are not sure what to do with it (I have a lot of items like this just because I loved the surface color & texture) or maybe just favorite it until later.

Three Hole Chocolate Clay Shard.

Although, I do have to say - I am really getting to the point of moving away from production clay and doing what I want in it.

So you might want to get it while you can… 

Changes on the horizon for this clay gal!

Oh, and check out this Etsy Mud Team treasury from JD Wolfe Pottery 

"The Break Up" which features my Chocolate Clay Shard Toggles:

So very cool…

I love these textures and patina colors…

What do you think about these pieces in my shop?

Wouldn't they look awesome used in pieces for the Vintaj Woodland Blush DesignChallenge?

Here is another Vintaj blog link to a post with some inspiring pieces for the Woodland Blush Design Challenge.

I'm seriously considering making at least one item to submit.

Maybe I'll go right now and work on it…

Submissions are due by noon on April 8th (CST).

Would love to see someone submit some designs using my shard pieces with the Vintaj pieces, maybe some of Shannon's (MissFickleMedia) pieces too…

Guess we'll see...

Last Day of Etsy Shop Sale

At some point tomorrow morning I will be changing back all the prices to regular price in my Etsy shop, then taking off until December 15th…

New Lentil Beads in the Etsy Shop!

Right now everything is 25% off retail prices. And if you are one of my FaceBook fans (and you use the coupon code before paying via Etsy), there is an extra code that you can use listed on my Marsha Neal Studio FaceBook Page that you can use in addition to this 25% off to get an even better deal (just become a fan to use it).

Over the next two weekends, I will have finished jewelry at two different home shows. Email me (Marsha at MarshaNealStudio.com) for the addresses if you will be in Wilmington, DE and want to get some items for gifts (or to treat yourself!).

Last Day of Etsy Shop Sale

At some point tomorrow morning I will be changing back all the prices to regular price in my Etsy shop, then taking off until December 15th…

New Lentil Beads in the Etsy Shop!

Right now everything is 25% off retail prices. And if you are one of my FaceBook fans (and you use the coupon code before paying via Etsy), there is an extra code that you can use listed on my Marsha Neal Studio FaceBook Page that you can use in addition to this 25% off to get an even better deal (just become a fan to use it).

Over the next two weekends, I will have finished jewelry at two different home shows. Email me (Marsha at MarshaNealStudio.com) for the addresses if you will be in Wilmington, DE and want to get some items for gifts (or to treat yourself!).

Clay Flowers Atop Shards...

Today I actually had a couple of hours to spend playing with clay in my studio.

I concentrated on making some cutout flower pendants, some cabs, and these...

They are flowers perched on top of some shard pieces, meant to go into your household potted plants.

They are still quite at the experimental stage as to how I am going to be making these...

Do they get wire imbedded within the stem?

Do they get wire just in the tip end of the shard stem?

Maybe no wire at all?

In my head, I go into "production" mode way of thinking. I can't help it. I feel that in order to justify being able to spend time in the studio at this point of my life, it needs to be making something that will bring in some income. I've been in this mode for years now, since I decided to get married and take a chance at quitting my day job and making money by running my own business.

It's not easy trying to be creative in amongst all the pressures of daily life.

In just this last week alone we had a lot going on in our family:

1 funeral (95 year old great uncle), 1 appendix removed (husband) and on 2 week recovery, 1 sick toddler (Chloe) for a week of vomiting, 1 baptism & party (Riley) that went on as planned, even though Dave had his appendix removed just hours before (crazy man!).

Can I just say I'm exhausted and feel like I'm getting a sore throat. Bet it's because my defenses are down... Well, with that, I'm off for a bit...

Keep an eye out on the BOC Blog for my Cone 6 Glaze Test Blog Posting every third Friday of the month. Maybe you can take a look at some of the new glazes I'm hoping to try out on these more sculptural pieces which will soon include pagodas and toadstools, all in miniature for your house plants... (and for the fairies that live there!)

Clay Flowers Atop Shards...

Today I actually had a couple of hours to spend playing with clay in my studio.

I concentrated on making some cutout flower pendants, some cabs, and these...

They are flowers perched on top of some shard pieces, meant to go into your household potted plants.

They are still quite at the experimental stage as to how I am going to be making these...

Do they get wire imbedded within the stem?

Do they get wire just in the tip end of the shard stem?

Maybe no wire at all?

In my head, I go into "production" mode way of thinking. I can't help it. I feel that in order to justify being able to spend time in the studio at this point of my life, it needs to be making something that will bring in some income. I've been in this mode for years now, since I decided to get married and take a chance at quitting my day job and making money by running my own business.

It's not easy trying to be creative in amongst all the pressures of daily life.

In just this last week alone we had a lot going on in our family:

1 funeral (95 year old great uncle), 1 appendix removed (husband) and on 2 week recovery, 1 sick toddler (Chloe) for a week of vomiting, 1 baptism & party (Riley) that went on as planned, even though Dave had his appendix removed just hours before (crazy man!).

Can I just say I'm exhausted and feel like I'm getting a sore throat. Bet it's because my defenses are down... Well, with that, I'm off for a bit...

Keep an eye out on the BOC Blog for my Cone 6 Glaze Test Blog Posting every third Friday of the month. Maybe you can take a look at some of the new glazes I'm hoping to try out on these more sculptural pieces which will soon include pagodas and toadstools, all in miniature for your house plants... (and for the fairies that live there!)

Shard Class at Artful Bead Studio in Pennington, NJ

Hello Everyone!

As I'm trying to keep up with a little bit of sanity in this new world of mine with a 2 year old and 2 week old... Things keep randomly popping into my head.

My friends at Artful Bead Studio in Pennington, NJ came up with an earring class based around my shard pieces called "Shard Lily Earrings" which is being offered on Thursday, January 14th from 5:30 - 8pm and on Saturday, February 6th from 1:30 - 4:30pm. The cost is $45 plus materials.

Here is a picture from their website with a sample of a pair of the earrings. They do have various color palettes of shards available too...

See more info about this class and many other cool classes they offer on their website by clicking HERE!

Happy creating everyone!!!

Shard Class at Artful Bead Studio in Pennington, NJ

Hello Everyone!

As I'm trying to keep up with a little bit of sanity in this new world of mine with a 2 year old and 2 week old... Things keep randomly popping into my head.

My friends at Artful Bead Studio in Pennington, NJ came up with an earring class based around my shard pieces called "Shard Lily Earrings" which is being offered on Thursday, January 14th from 5:30 - 8pm and on Saturday, February 6th from 1:30 - 4:30pm. The cost is $45 plus materials.

Here is a picture from their website with a sample of a pair of the earrings. They do have various color palettes of shards available too...

See more info about this class and many other cool classes they offer on their website by clicking HERE!

Happy creating everyone!!!

Chocolate Clay Shards Glazed!

Here is a quick snapshot of the chocolate clay shards glazed...

Sorry for the not so great picture quality....

I was having a bit of a rough weekend (must've really been working on something internally with the new baby - like brain development or something because I surely had no energy and wanted to sleep all weekend...)

Here is a close up of some of my favorite pieces that came out of the glaze firing.

Unfortunately, nobody will ever see these in person...

The glaze did not fit the clay body...

And what I mean by this is that at the final firing temperature of the glaze and clay,

which should be the point where they have the strongest bond and most durability...

The glaze decided to leave the clay (sad story, I know...)

When I had tried these two particular glazes on my porcelain clay body a few years ago,

the same thing happened...

So over the next year (hopefully in the sooner part of this next year) I can do some experimenting to see if I can get it to fit better...

I've got some ideas and will see what works and what doesn't and will share here to give you all some insight into the glazing process.

Ok, So this morning, before the sun came over our trees, I quick snapped these pics...

Sorry for the side view of the pieces - it was the only way to get them without glare from the sun (even though it was indirect sun)...

I made sure to get some multi hole pieces and some 6 hole pieces glazed up for Bead Fest.

I've just been into that mode of seeing things dangle from pieces (I think Jenny Davies-Reazor has gotten this implanted into my head - Thanks Jenny! It's a good thing!!!)

The Chocolate Clay pieces towards the top right (with the river rock texture) are all glazed on one side, and some have one hole, others have two. There are only so many of these...

Below is one of the nature series pieces.

This particular one is a *Blood Root leaf impression that my friend Kim Love of AspenWear helped me with a few years ago.

*I posted some images of the Blood Root growing in my garden to the Marsha Neal Studio Blog in March, April, May (when it is in bloom) right before I began my garden blog: Marsha's Garden Blog.

Have you discovered my garden blog yet? Lots of pictures there of stuff that is going on in the garden... Ok - mostly blooms and other textures I find...

Off to get some decals designed and printed out for a last firing for Bead Fest!

Stop by and see me in booth #806...

Oh, and make sure you are signed up for my e-newsletter mailing list...

I'm going to be finishing that up this week and it will have lots of information on upcoming giveaways and contests... and of course coupons for shopping with Marsha Neal Studio!

Hope you are all having fun!

Chocolate Clay Shards Glazed!

Here is a quick snapshot of the chocolate clay shards glazed...

Sorry for the not so great picture quality....

I was having a bit of a rough weekend (must've really been working on something internally with the new baby - like brain development or something because I surely had no energy and wanted to sleep all weekend...)

Here is a close up of some of my favorite pieces that came out of the glaze firing.

Unfortunately, nobody will ever see these in person...

The glaze did not fit the clay body...

And what I mean by this is that at the final firing temperature of the glaze and clay,

which should be the point where they have the strongest bond and most durability...

The glaze decided to leave the clay (sad story, I know...)

When I had tried these two particular glazes on my porcelain clay body a few years ago,

the same thing happened...

So over the next year (hopefully in the sooner part of this next year) I can do some experimenting to see if I can get it to fit better...

I've got some ideas and will see what works and what doesn't and will share here to give you all some insight into the glazing process.

Ok, So this morning, before the sun came over our trees, I quick snapped these pics...

Sorry for the side view of the pieces - it was the only way to get them without glare from the sun (even though it was indirect sun)...

I made sure to get some multi hole pieces and some 6 hole pieces glazed up for Bead Fest.

I've just been into that mode of seeing things dangle from pieces (I think Jenny Davies-Reazor has gotten this implanted into my head - Thanks Jenny! It's a good thing!!!)

The Chocolate Clay pieces towards the top right (with the river rock texture) are all glazed on one side, and some have one hole, others have two. There are only so many of these...

Below is one of the nature series pieces.

This particular one is a *Blood Root leaf impression that my friend Kim Love of AspenWear helped me with a few years ago.

*I posted some images of the Blood Root growing in my garden to the Marsha Neal Studio Blog in March, April, May (when it is in bloom) right before I began my garden blog: Marsha's Garden Blog.

Have you discovered my garden blog yet? Lots of pictures there of stuff that is going on in the garden... Ok - mostly blooms and other textures I find...

Off to get some decals designed and printed out for a last firing for Bead Fest!

Stop by and see me in booth #806...

Oh, and make sure you are signed up for my e-newsletter mailing list...

I'm going to be finishing that up this week and it will have lots of information on upcoming giveaways and contests... and of course coupons for shopping with Marsha Neal Studio!

Hope you are all having fun!

Yumm... Chocolate Clay (Finally!) as Shards

Peeves couldn't help herself...

What's this she asked?

It's a different color, smells different (is that aging?), and is in my space...

So it hit me today...

I've been working with Porcelain for so long...

But have always had boxes and boxes of different clay waiting to be tried...

Umm...

Let's just try one...

This is my Cone 6 Chocolate Clay Body.

And this is what I worked on today...

Chocolate Shards, River Rock Buttons & Pendants, and some textured pendants...

I think one of the things holding me back from trying this clay was something internal.

Something in my head (from my early days of working with clay in a communal studio) kept telling me: Don't mix colored clay bodies in the same work space...

If you use a dark clay in the porcelain area of the studio, your porcelain won't be as clean.

And as true as that is...

Porcelain is a very white clay body - it's supposed to be super clean...

(to allow the glazes to come through not so muddled)...

I decided to pull out some old tools, not to be used on porcelain texture plates, and rubber stamps to fiddle with this Chocolate Clay Body.

Can you tell that I liked the Chocolate Clay?

It is SO plastic and easy to use...

It is so different than Porcelain...

Porcelain is so temperamental at times...

On a side note, somewhat related to this post and the previous one,

Because it is using the shard pieces...

Here are some images of some small pieces that I made a while back with some of the shards when I first started to work with them at this scale.

I say this scale because when I was going through my Masters degree in Ceramics,

I threw a lot of coils like this on the potters wheel that were around 8" up to 3' tall.

I did an installation with the pieces and if I can find the images in my backup files, I'll post some of them here.

These new small scale pieces are still trying to discover their potential.

They started out as tops for small scale pagodas for your indoor house plants and terrariums.

But I haven't worked on the bodies yet.

I think these will be fired then glazed and will sit on my windowsill or in some plants around here just as my starting point for a new body of work.

Oh, and by the way, I just stared an official Marsha Neal Studio Facebook Page (see side bar).

Also, In September I plan on having a challenge for anyone using my "shards" in their work to post pictures of. I've got to work on that detail and will post info here on this blog soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

Yumm... Chocolate Clay (Finally!) as Shards

Peeves couldn't help herself...

What's this she asked?

It's a different color, smells different (is that aging?), and is in my space...

So it hit me today...

I've been working with Porcelain for so long...

But have always had boxes and boxes of different clay waiting to be tried...

Umm...

Let's just try one...

This is my Cone 6 Chocolate Clay Body.

And this is what I worked on today...

Chocolate Shards, River Rock Buttons & Pendants, and some textured pendants...

I think one of the things holding me back from trying this clay was something internal.

Something in my head (from my early days of working with clay in a communal studio) kept telling me: Don't mix colored clay bodies in the same work space...

If you use a dark clay in the porcelain area of the studio, your porcelain won't be as clean.

And as true as that is...

Porcelain is a very white clay body - it's supposed to be super clean...

(to allow the glazes to come through not so muddled)...

I decided to pull out some old tools, not to be used on porcelain texture plates, and rubber stamps to fiddle with this Chocolate Clay Body.

Can you tell that I liked the Chocolate Clay?

It is SO plastic and easy to use...

It is so different than Porcelain...

Porcelain is so temperamental at times...

On a side note, somewhat related to this post and the previous one,

Because it is using the shard pieces...

Here are some images of some small pieces that I made a while back with some of the shards when I first started to work with them at this scale.

I say this scale because when I was going through my Masters degree in Ceramics,

I threw a lot of coils like this on the potters wheel that were around 8" up to 3' tall.

I did an installation with the pieces and if I can find the images in my backup files, I'll post some of them here.

These new small scale pieces are still trying to discover their potential.

They started out as tops for small scale pagodas for your indoor house plants and terrariums.

But I haven't worked on the bodies yet.

I think these will be fired then glazed and will sit on my windowsill or in some plants around here just as my starting point for a new body of work.

Oh, and by the way, I just stared an official Marsha Neal Studio Facebook Page (see side bar).

Also, In September I plan on having a challenge for anyone using my "shards" in their work to post pictures of. I've got to work on that detail and will post info here on this blog soon!

Thanks for stopping by!