Sunday, October 25, 2009

Marsha Neal Studio Open Studio Welcome...

Welcome to the Marsha Neal Studio Blog Open Studio!
Part of Beads-of-Clay Blog Fall Open Studio Event...

All day today I will be running a 40% off sale through my
All of the prices have been reduced already so the price you see will be the price you pay.
Shipping will happen on Tuesday, October 27 so I can have time to combine multiple items.

There will also be 2 commenters giveaways today through this blog
(and via the other participating artists: Click Here for a list).
On the giveaway blog posts, just comment and you will be entered to win the item pictured on that blog post.
The first at 1:45 pm EST.
The second at 3 pm EST.
The winners will be announced 15 minutes later.
If you are a winner, contact the artist with your address via email.

Ok, enough with those details...
On with the show... Part 1:
INTRODUCTION OF THE ARTIST

I've been working with ceramic clay since 1997 when I took a beginning ceramics class at the University of Delaware. After graduation in 2001 I spent some time trying to figure out how I could continue to work with clay, pay off school loan debt, and where the heck my life was going...

Here are some pictures of my work from my time at the University:

Studio space and early works (underwater sea scape tile and Raku box):
MA thesis work:
Basically small alien and organic forms that I created by throwing clay on a potters wheel and texturing press mold pieces, then joining them...
I felt pretty uncomfortable in the "art world" at the University coming from a background in Entomology as an undergraduate. I felt at home in the ceramics studio itself and spent most of my time there making things. But having to put meaning to those things... that was where I myself felt alien...
Installation at the Urban Environmental Center in Wilmington, DE


Since graduation in 2001, I started to work on smaller scale pieces, concentrating on mainly pendants and beads made from Porcelain clay (and recently, a chocolate clay as well).

To view my current line of porcelain pendants, you can visit my website:

On a personal note about me, and not my work...
Since graduation I have gotten married, had a baby, and currently am expecting baby #2 in January 2010. We've got 2 cats: Stinker and Peeves. And we just love spending time together as a family...

We moved into a larger house a few years ago which had a bit more room for my studio which had been taking over almost every inch of the townhouse from before and in preparation for the family we knew we wanted to have...

I've got lots of garden space, and we back up to a small patch of woods, right in the middle of a suburban setting. We have lots of critters around us from White Tailed Deer, Red Foxes, Racoons, Opossums, many, many birds, garter snakes, and so on... It's a great place to raise kids and expose them to nature...

Check out my garden blog for more on that...

OPEN STUDIO UP NEXT:
1:45 pm EST: Blog Commenters Giveaway #1
2 pm EST: Winner Announced
2:15 pm EST: Step Into My Studio

2 comments:

  1. Hi Marsha - I see a direct correlation between your shards and some of your earlier standing pieces. Things have a way of coming full circle...

    ReplyDelete
  2. this is so great! going to your etsy shop...
    just wanted you to know that the link on boc didn't work for me... i think the address is wrong if you could have someone fix it...

    ReplyDelete

I would love to hear what you think…