$5 Pendant DeStash Sale Going On!!!

Over in my Etsy shop, I'm holding another $5 pendant De-Stash Sale.

The last one was back in November, and this will probably be the last one for a while.

Actually I don't plan on making or glazing any pendants until maybe next fall.
March is here, and the garden needs tending through June, so I will spend a lot of time there (overhauling it)...

Marsha Neal Studio Small Pendant Sets

I have a bunch of small pendant sets above (ideal for earrings) that I'm going to be listing in grab bags.

Marsha Neal Studio Medium Pendants

Also, during this destash sale - for every 5 pieces you purchase, I'm going to be throwing in wrapping up a medium (above photo) pendant of my choice to go with your color palette.

Marsha Neal Studio Handmade Bead Sets

And there are my new bead sets (above) that are being loaded into the shop as well.

I have a lot more of those to work on through the night & maybe Tuesday...

Marsha Neal Studio Face Book Page

Over on my Marsha Neal Studio Face Book page during this event, there are giveaways happening, so make sure you stop by and jump in on the fun (commenting, sharing things socially via FB, Twitter, Pinterest - listing things from my shop via the Pin It Button, Etc). 

And once you make a purchase and pay the $3 shipping - you can use coupon code FREESHIP to avoid excess shipping fees.

Update: Winners from the two previous blog posts for the Silk Color Palette Challenge have been picked!

Hope you get to pick up some pieces during this sale!

Silk Color Palette Challenge Round 1 March to May

Welcome to the First Marsha Neal Studio Silk Color Palette Challenge!

I asked 12 different bead artist and jewelry designer friends to pull color palettes from this collection of photos...

1. Carrie Can Blog
2. CreativeRuts on Tumbler
3. The Lurie Garden's Salvia River 4. Marsha Neal Studio Macro Cone Flower

Click on the above names and you can go to the source for the image & check out their great blogs & flickr accounts...

... And pull colors from the silks that I sell to come up with a (10) 2mm silk ribbon knot bundle.

It always seems like so much more fun when you have friends that have common obsessions interests to go in with you and pull something like this together...

Marsha Neal Studio Silk Ribbon color selections on flickr.

So what is the point of this exercise you may ask?
Basically to get your brain moving and to kick start some new ideas.
To see how you can pull colors from inspirational sources.
Then put together palettes of materials (starting with these silks) add other jewelry making supplies such as beads, various metal, found objects, jewelry findings, whatever you want!
And come up with new ways to use these things together then blog about them & network.

And there is no denying that I would like to sell some of these silk knot bundles & offer some as giveaways to help entice you to get involved in on this fun.

There will be a 2nd round starting on May 3, 2012 (click for details) and anyone willing to come up with a new palette and post a link is invited to participate!

So here are the twelve silk knot color palettes that my friends came up with which you can now purchase through my Website or Etsy shop.

Catherine Pruitt of Boo Beads Jewelry

Cilla Watkins of Tell Your Girlfriends

Erin Prais-Hintz of Tesori Trovati Jewelry

Genea Crivello-Knable of Genea Beads

Kim Roberts of Bahama Dawn

Kristi Harrison of Keepsakes By Kristi

Lesley Watt of Thea Jewelry

Marla James of Marla's Mud

Melinda Orr of Melinda Orr Designs

Shannon Chomanczuk of For My Sweet Daughter

Staci Louise Originals and Artisan Accents

Susan Kennedy of Sue Beads

Why should you purchase these?
1. You can help these 12 artists reach milestones of silk knot bundles sold & they get free stuff (you could be one of these lucky 12 next time if you come up with a palette & get voted in).

2. For every 1 palette that you purchase in these 12 finalist palettes during this 1st round - ends May 2, 2012, you get 1 entry into winning a $50 Marsha Neal Studio Clay Pieces Gift Certificate.

3. There will be design challenges hosted here on my blog designed around the inspirations from these silk knot bundles and inspirational photographs for anyone purchasing these palettes & using them in their designs, then entering the design challenge posts.
Prizes for winners will be determined as events are scheduled.

Oh, and don't worry, there will be some blog post tutorials coming up on how to use these in some basic ways to create jewelry.

And there is always this awesome new book "Bohemian Inspired Jewelry" by Lorelei Eurto and Erin Siegel coming out soon (2012) where you can see how they used some of these silks in projects:

Bohemian Inspired Jewelry by Lorelei Eurto and Erin Siegel

Shop for Silk Knot Bundles on Marsha Neal Studio.com

Shop for Silk Knot Bundles on Marsha Neal Studio Etsy.com
For 1 knot. For 2 knots. For 3 knots. For 4 knots. For 5 knots. For 10 knots.

Silk Color Palette Challenge Introduction

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Where do you find your inspiration for color palettes for your art and your life?

Marsha Neal Studio Macro Image of Cone Flower

And what do you do with that inspiration?

Personally I am a color and texture addict.

I love pull a lot of my inspiration from photographs, art, magazines, nature.

Pinterest anyone???

It is all quite visual. If I can hold something - that visual then becomes combined with the way something feels and it is like inspiration overload...

This overload often leads me to get into the clay studio and start to work on new jewelry components.

Marsha Neal Studio ceramic clay accent beads - coming soon!

Then comes times to figure out how to work those components into finished pieces (boy am I thankful there are a lot of great jewelry designers out there willing to use my work in their designs!)

Marsha Neal Studio "Stormy Waters" Silk Knot Bundle

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And then there is the silk...

My actual silk obsession, as far back as I can remember, started as a child - in the JC Penney women's lingerie section. I remember asking my mom to park me in the stroller next to the slips while she shopped. I slept on a hand sewn pink silky pillow case and wore the silk off of my "baby blanket"...

My obsession with silk ribbons in a more formal way started when I used to travel to bead shows all across the United States to sell my ceramic pieces to jewelry designers. I met Ute, the woman that hand paints the silks I carry, out in Tucson in 2005 and I happily came home with a small batch of her hand painted silk ribbons to sell along with my beads.

Pretty soon I realized that people were not only coming to me for my ceramic work, but for the silks.

It was not long before I was ordering them in bulk batches by the thousands in three different types of silks (2mm, Silky and Fairy Ribbons) in over 70 colors.

One of my most enjoyable things to do while selling at bead shows was watch the color palettes people would pick out for a project they had in mind...

You can tell a lot about a personality by the colors (earthy, bright, neutral, cheery, etc).

One of my favorite palettes ever - all rich muted tones!

These days I have two little kids and I no longer travel to sell my work personally through shows.
I miss that face to face customer interaction...

My studio is in my house, and this is where I go every day to work.

Being an artist isn't always about being creative...
In my case it is more about being an artist that runs a business & trying to come up with fun interactive marketing ideas to keep my business alive.

That 90% work, 10% creative studio time is very realistic in my world.

"Mom - I like this one the best!" Purple - Yes!!! She is a bead girl in the making...

My energies are seriously focused on selling through my website and Etsy shop so I can keep my business up and running.

I still love to see what silk color palettes people pick out for their work as I pull silks to fill orders.

2mm Silk Ribbon Strands pulled for an order.

And feeling this joy from working with the silks and pulling them for your projects & getting to know so many people through social media outlets - it got me to thinking:

How can I get more people involved with this picking a color palette thing?
It makes me happy, it would make them happy too.
How to make it a challenge?
Network with other artists?
Have lots of fun, and give stuff away (I love giving stuff away!)...

This is where Marsha Neal Studio Silk Color Palette Challenge idea came about.

My thoughts:
Take a photo that inspires you (respect copyright, use & give credit or don't use it) and pull colors from that image and make a palette of (10) of the 2mm silks that I sell and make a "knot bundle".
Help me sell and promote it & run challenges of your own along with ones I will run here on my blog and we can have a blast with this stuff and get creative juices going.

And I can give stuff away (did I mention that already? Hmmm...)

So want your first chance at getting FREE stuff?

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.marshanealstudio.blogspot.com/p/silk-color-palette-challenge.html" title="Marsha Neal Studio Silk Color Palette Challenge"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yQH34UzCJBw/T0vKVPrfyYI/AAAAAAAAD5k/_VUj9WTwxeM/s200/Silk+Color+Palette+Challenge+Marsha+Neal+Studio+2012.jpg" alt="Marsha Neal Studio Silk Color Palette Challenge" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

First Way to Win: Feb. 29 to March 4, 2012 (closes midnight EST)

1. Add the silk color palette button to your blog sidebar or website to help me promote this event (copy and paste the html code into a html gadget on your blog - for blogger. Other blogs, not sure how it is done).

*You can copy and paste your blog address into the comment if you share the button so I can check it out too (I love finding new cool blogs to follow - don't you?)

2. Tweet, Share on FB, whatever social media outlet you take part in...

3. Then comment here on this post that you have done so for every action you take.

*Every comment you leave for each action gets you one entry for a drawing for a free (10) 2mm silk knot bundle of your choice from the 12 finalist palettes.

Second Way to Win: Stop back from March 1 to March 4 and vote for your favorite palette (closes midnight EST).

Want to get more chances at winning another silk knot bundle for you AND for one of the 12 finalists? Then stop back here on March 1 to March 4 to vote for your favorite palette(s) and then leave one comment once you have voted (one comment per person please) and you will be entered into the drawing to win a 2mm silk knot bundle of your choice. The "12 palette finalist artist" with the top voted palette gets to select a 2mm silk knot bundle for themselves too...

Third way to win:

For any of the silk knot bundles of the 12 finalist color palettes you purchase from March 1 to March 4, you will get an entry to win an additional 2mm silk knot bundle of your color choice AND a free pair of my new porcelain clay beads in your glaze color choice (you pick round, chevron inspired, or shard inspired). Purchase must be made by Midnight EST on March 4, 2012.

New Marsha Neal Studio Bead Sets for my Etsy shop!

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My Etsy shop will be updated on Monday, March 5, 2012 with a pendant destash (selected items in a designated section) as well as all of my new bead sets you see in the photo above will be listed for sale.

And if you were around last time for my destash sale - you know I like to give even more stuff away!

So get ready for some fun!

Make sure you are a fan of my Marsha Neal Studio FaceBook page so you can get in on some of the destash purchasers giveaway actions starting Monday!

Now - quick - go add that button to your blog and start sharing (don't forget to comment!) 

I want YOU to win something!!!

Silk Color Palette Challenge Coming March 1, 2012

I'm working behind the scenes on a few projects right now...

Feeling just slightly overwhelmed - but getting through it little by little.

The first project that I am working on getting finalized is that on Thursday, March 1st - there will be a new post for the Silk Color Palette Challenge.

What is a Silk Color Palette Challenge? 

You'll have to check back soon for details (silk bundles, inspirational photos, 12 artists picked to participate already, chances at giveaways for purchasing silks, selling silks, etc). I am creating a page right now with all the details & sending the current 12 artists their info so they can get their blogs ready.

For this and future Silk Color Palette Challenges, I've updated my silk color choice photos and have added them to my Flickr account for people to use to create custom palettes for my future challenges.

I use BigHugeLabs mosaic maker to do things like this:

These are all of my 74 colors that I'm offering for 2012 in the Hand Painted Silks.

These three images are used in my Etsy shop listings (which also needed an update).

These three images I use for my business use and you are welcome to share them without removing my information.

However, if you also sell these silks, Do Not use my images for your listings.

Create your own by photographing silks yourself & in a different style so our shops are not confused.

Keep an eye out...

Oh, and I am also working on photographing these new bead sets for listing in my Etsy shop later this week. Make sure you are on my mailing list for a head's up!

Marsha Neal Studio Beads (8 sets of 2 bead pairs on most strands).

Last Bead Glaze Firing - For Now...

I just finished unloading my last of my new bead line glaze firings. Now to photograph the individual color groups - depending on the sun today. Then to get them into groupings for the website & Etsy shop!

Here is a preview:

Oh, I wish it were a little overcast today and not raining...

Photography will have to wait just a bit.

I Am Here

It has been way too long since I have worked on expanding my porcelain pendant & bead line. I've actually been in a crazed making and glazing state for about 2 weeks now. But I'm almost done...

One last batch to glaze & fire - then I can photograph & start listing items on my website & Etsy shop!!!

Here are some previews via iPhone blogger blogging so I can get back to work - but say "I am here". Just a little busy working...