BOC Second Saturday State of Your Studio

Welcome to my post to join in on the Beads-of-Clay Blog post for

Second Saturday, State of Your Studio.

Make sure to swing by the blog for this monthly blog hop to look into some artists studios...

If you have a studio or creative space, you are welcome to join up on this blog hop by including a direct link for your blog post to the BOC post so that visitors can take a look into where you create. 

My creative space for clay, jewelry and office work is in my basement.

Unfortunately this is what the view into the outside looks like:

I've been trying to figure out the best time of the year to be most productive in the clay studio.

I love being in the garden from March/April until June.

Then it just becomes horribly humid and hot and I happily go into the cool basement and hang out in the clay and jewelry areas.

I managed to even get some clay-work in yesterday and made some domed cabs for my friend Teddi and some for Darlene (D7Studio).

I just love the way these domed cabs look...

I have yet to clean up the bottoms & edges with a wet sponge,

but that will be for me to do once the kids get to napping (maybe today or tomorrow).

I've also got my glaze tests underway for my next post for Beads of Clay Blog Third Friday, Cone 6 Commercial Glaze post I do every month.

I've been glazing up some pieces and firing them in my small kiln (which gets different results than my large kiln) so that I can make up a limited "glaze color selection" for some of my jewelry listings up in my Etsy shop. I did this so that I can have a faster turn around since I don't have to have quite so many pieces ready before firing the kiln. I like to try to fire a full kiln load. Firing a load almost empty is such a waste of energy...

I've been getting in a bit of photography time too.

These are the 12 glazes I decided upon for the Porcelain Clay Twirl Earrings in my Etsy shop.

I just love the tone of blue and the translucency of this new Peacock glaze.

It picks up the detail of my textures so well and shadows nicely!

And here is my jewelry making desk.

I just got a new shipment of silks in and want to spend some time pulling some for new bundles for my Etsy shop.

Also, last night I went out to see a fellow Delaware Etsy Street Team artist (Nicole Kristiana) at her opening at The Grand on the Wilmington Art Loop then went to the after loop party "re:fresh" at the newly opened World Cafe Live at the Queen… 

Words cannot explain how great it feels to go out and be around other artists.

Especially when you are an artist working alone in a house…

Standing under the staircase, looking up the interior side of the building.

And to be in such a unique building that has so much history.

I blogged about it over on the DEST Blog if you want to see more.

Don't forget to visit the Beads of Clay Blog to see what other artists studios are looking like right now…

Thanks for stopping by for a bit!

State of Your Studio Saturday...

Over on BOC I create a monthly post on the 2nd saturday where artists that blog can link up their post about the current State of your Studio.

The state of my clay studio right now - well, I couldn't even tell you what it looks like. I have some porcelain rolled out into slabs from about a month ago, covered in plastic - waiting to be made into cutout flowers. And I just came across my glaze tests on the dining room table (the place where I put the tray last month after photographing the test tiles for my monthly glaze post).

My mind and hands have been in the garden. I have been dividing plants and donating a number of them to non-profit organization plant sales in the last month. My interests in gardening with sustainability in mind is at the forefront.

August 2010 Main Hill Garden

The lack of an overall "design" in my garden is bugging the crap out of me. Maybe it is just impatience and lack of funds to buy more plants (Yes - I have a plant addiction, much like my bead addiction). Wish the plant center would trade beads or jewelry with my beads for plants… Maybe they will - hmmm…

For now, I continue to divide my perennials and plant more plants to help increase the availability of pollen, nectar, seed, and habitat for the wildlife. But it is getting to be too much of the same thing repeated around in the different garden areas. So it need to focus more on design to be balanced for that human aspect that is incorporated within the idea of garden sustainability.

Blood-root in amongst vines. These were transplanted after flowering.

I'm irked at all the vines growing at the edge of my garden and woods. I am strongly considering having a contractor come in and clear that area, leaving only one oak tree in place. Just to get a bit of control back and to make sense of that area and to get rid of those invasive vines that are choking out the trees and fragmented woodland understory plants. 

Some early vines and plants that will soon take over this area.

So little by little, I am digging up the native plants that I can get to and moving them to a better location so when we have the funds, and it is the right time of the year (fall I believe - after bird nesting season), I can say - take it all, except that oak, out…

Oh, and one project that I am working on for my Native Teaching Garden for Master Gardeners is a list of native plants for shade gardens that can actually be found at local nurseries around here. There is already a list of native plants for the demonstration garden. Not that it will be used, but I think a list of native plants, that are usually available to the general public is quite helpful to have. At this point of my education, I get so confused with all the names being thrown about.

So the next step will be me taking my camera and photographing the plant in prime growth season, with a label in front of it so I can get some things straight in my head. Learning a whole new language here…

I wonder if I'll get into the studio (other than for orders) between now and next month's post for the BOC State of Your Studio Saturday… 

Somehow, I doubt it. I'll be back in there once we arrive at 80 degree days and I can't stand to be outside in the heat...

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!

Second Saturday State Of Your Studio - February...

Welcome into my studio…

I am finding myself and my inspiration from all over the place recently.

Above is a Focus!!! Tile that I have been working on seriously.

I have grand delusions of a really funny interactive art project with these tiles…

More to come on that. Think BIG right?

They will all be glazed with this type of finish. Dark. Crusty. Beautiful...

I don't know why I like these pieces so much…

I just can't help myself!

There are a ton of little pieces that will be showing up with this finish…

I just know it!

I need to investigate why these test tiles with wording came out looking like crap.

Nothing like what I had planned.

I think I watered it down too much (you think?!)

So as I was not in my clay studio since last fall (Oct/Nov)…

I decided that I needed to scour my office area and studio in the last month and figure out where the heck I left off before the holidays hit...

I found some old test cones caps for necklaces…

Maybe I'll revisit them sometime.

A slide of some of work I did back in 2000 (check out that date of slide printing - almost 11 years ago exact - weird!) I have the mold for this piece still. Turn it upside down and put a plant in it I say...

The studio has not been this clean & wiped down for a few years!

Ugh, the lingering tower of kitty litter buckets - filled with dry clay scraps.

And bins on shelves above them, filled with:

These are from when I was selling a ton of work through online shops and bead shows.

Not so much anymore…

So what did I do with all those pieces that I paid for already (by this stage, each plastic shoebox full of pieces sanded, sponged & holes drilled - could be $500 to $1000 paid to people helping me out).

They were all dumped into a bucket. This Bucket holds at least 7 shoe boxes full of pieces.

That now look like this:

Do you know how much better I feel about that?

Can I even tell you that there was so much emotion tied up into those shoe boxes full of clay?

Frustration for having paid for work that did not meet up to my standards.

Yes, I'm that much of a control freak. The edges were over sponged and the shapes lost form.

Holes were not centered… Frustrating.

Then there is that lingering feeling of "well, they are paid for, why not try to fix them?".

So I just decided. It has been years. No orders for them. They should be put to better use and recycled into something much more than what they are now.

I feel so much more free right now because of it!

And upon my end of the day clean up…

After finding this cool dried glaze to put in the dry Cone 6 glaze bucket - 

At the point of getting ready to head upstairs - I found this…

Talk about some curse words flying…

A gallon of distilled water I guess had a leak and since I had not been in the clay part of the studio for really 4 months… I had no idea this was going on.

I put on gloves, got the paper towels, garbage bag and antibacterial wipes and went to town. I flipped the wood over and let it dry out (see the heater at the very bottom of the photo).

All better… Pshew.

I have so much more to share with what is going on in my studio.

But that will have to wait until the next Beads-of-Clay Open Studio to be held on March 6, 2011 from 1-4pm EST. I will be having a few giveaways and running a special in my Etsy shop for the weekend.

Until then - Check out some other Clay Bead Makers Blogs sharing (hopefully) the state of their studio over on the Beads-of-Clay Blog.

I hope you will stop back again!

January Second Saturday State Of Your Studio...

So I'm a bit late on the state of your studio post for the monthly Beads-of-Clay Blog post…

My creative studio space has been all over the place.

I have been photographing again out in the garden.

I am taking a Drawing class this year (Drawing Lab 2011).

I was not "allowed" to take "art" classes in High School, and was not allowed to take any "foundations" art classes during college because they were "reserved for the art concentration students". Bummer...

So this is something for me. And so far I really like it and it has inspired me to draw on a regular basis as well as to put images into the computer and fiddle with my wacom tablet that I've had for almost 2 years now…

Really I haven't been in my clay studio since sometime in November…

And I want to, but not so bad that I "have" to get in there right now. Soon, but just not right now…

And this area of new shelving and a place to photograph work - well,  after all that crazy jewelry making for the home shows in Dec - all that stuff got packed up and brought back down here and shoved into anywhere there was space. Yes - I NEED that jewelry making area in the back of the studio done ASAP so I can avoid this piling and stacking thing I keep doing - Ugh!

And I've been on the computer a lot. Fiddling with my photographs, Zentangles, and drawings trying to see how to layer them on my clay pieces. It's fun actually having my computer and printer right there next to the studio so I can go back and forth with my notes and resize things and reprint, then go into the studio and use the decals. What gratification!!! Doesn't happen enough, but potential is there!

And here are some of the decal pieces in progress on some glazed pieces that I had sitting around. One of my tangle drawings (I did that on the computer today using the Wacom tablet - yay me!) is to the left and my drawing lab cat is on the tube beads and to the right. I have more on pendants as well…

Thanks for stopping by to see the state of my studio.

Hope to have some new work done soon, and a more organized space next time… 

Make sure to swing by the Beads-of-Clay Blog to see the state of other artists creative spaces (you can add your own link too! Doesn't have to be a clay studio…)

And if you do, grab that BOC button and add it to your blog with a link back to the BOC blog…

Hope you are finding your creative self (even amongst total mess and chaos)!

December Second Saturday State of Your Studio (Beads of Clay)...

Welcome to the December Second Saturday State of Your Studio blog post,

Hosted through the Beads-of-Clay Blog...

My dining room table has served as my jewelry making area…

I have been super busy making jewelry for December Home Shows (Today is the last day 11am-7pm, In Wilmington, DE - email me for address: Marsha {at} MarshaNealStudio.com).

Here is one of my display bins with some pendants made up as necklaces on cards, in baggies...

And I finally broke out some of the paper I have been collecting, thinking it would be great for backgrounds for photos… 

The office area is a complete mess…

Things have been cleared from the dining room and put down here.

I did not have time to put things aways where they should…

Maybe this next week.

The clay and glazing area - unused for the most part except for a few orders here that needed to be glazed here and there...

And my 4 cup little coffee pot died…

Dave had gotten it for me years ago when he wanted me to cut back a bit on my caffeine intake.

My friend Joan once told me that I reminded her of her Jack Russell Terrier (one of my favorite dog breeds by the way - I think I could handle the energy…).

The 12 cup pot was just too much coffee for one person to drink and the other (non-coffee drinker) to deal with.

So now, being Christmas time, I wonder what it's replacement will be…

Make sure to share your creative area (your "studio") through the Beads of Clay Blog!

Thanks for stopping by!