A New Week (Already?)...

Wow - Spring is here! This week temperatures are supposed to stay above freezing at night, and get up into the 50-60's (today is a freak day - 73 degrees possible?!).

I have been meaning to keep up with my blog a bit more, but honestly, I have been overwhelmed with what I want to post, so I just don't because it would be super huge long posts…

So here is the current State of My Studio (part of the Beads of Clay Blog Series - late I know…)

So here is my Jewelry Making Table (for Bead Table Wednesday)

I broke into my huge stash of artists beads and Love using Joanne Zekowski's glass beads.

I sure hope she comes back to BeadFest this year so I can get more!

I do randomly throw up pics on my MNS FB page as I work. If you "like" my MNS FB page you can see those pics as I post them and use the 10% off code for my Marsha Neal Studio Etsy shop for my Facebook Fans: "FaceBookFan10".

Here is one of my earring pairs in hand. I really love the way this Autumn glaze puddles purple blue and some hints of copper in it… 

I am still struggling with photography of my pieces for Etsy.

A lot of photos that are up there were taken with my iPhone because I could get it to work better than the digital SLR. Less frustrating… Or so I thought because now that I look at the pieces up in my Etsy shop… the darn pictures are blurry. So I need to re-photograph a lot of them.

Luckily I think I may have an idea about what I am doing. Not 100% yet, but I'm getting there…

But this means that I need to go through all the pieces in that photo above (there are layers of trays btw) I need to figure what is actually listed in my shop, of those: what I need to rephotograph. 

Which ones are photographed, but not listed and are those photographs ok or will they be blurry too?

And will the sunlight, camera battery, my patience, and computer - which is currently telling me I am dangerously low on available storage space where I am saving my pictures (time to clean that up as well) all cooperate? 

We'll see…

Oh, and I'm going to give Etsy Stalker a try for April

I am very curious about different ways of marketing and getting your work out there.

Then there is my garden and woods. Right now is the time to pull out the first emerging invasive plants (they like to get a head start on and suffocate out the natives) and the plants I just don't want around (poison ivy, sticker bushes, etc). So I'm getting in as much garden time on Tues & Thurs afternoons after my garden training is done…

Just me, a rake and a pair of rubber faced gloves…

Cleared about 80' by about 15' of the area where our neglected, invasive full woods meets our lawn (or the soon to be replanted wildlife habitat).

Christmas Rose Hellebore

But I'm not one of those gardeners that is "strictly native" when it comes to planting my garden. 

I've struggled with this for a while. 

Through confusion & guilt - but I'm figuring out some stuff and feel like I can stand my ground now. 

I'll post about native plant gardening over on my garden blog soon. 

These Hellebores are not a US native. They are from Europe (which is why they are often seen in the "deer resistant" part of the nursery - our local wildlife cannot digest them - I do believe most are poisonous as well). 

So this is a plant that I plant for myself in the garden.

I as caretaker of my garden want to have certain things in my garden. 

This is one of them. 

I love the way that they appear out of the snow in January into February. 

That they bloom when everything else is just tiny nubs… 

This was the plant that I was able to find for my mom to see out in her garden in the early spring when she was fighting Leukemia. 

So to support myself as part of the garden ecosystem (because without me, those invasive plants would take over and the natives I plant to support many levels of life, would get suffocated out), I plant these and a few others that I enjoy. 

Hopefully not causing another level of invasion… 

But really, who wins that argument?

It is about so much more than drawing a line and seeing which side you are on.

More over on my garden blog…

Not much clay work going on… 

Hmmm. 

I think I am going to hop into the studio for a bit right now!

Thanks for stopping by!