Black Friday through Cyber Monday Sale
As a bit of Thanks for all of my customers – I am offering a lot of items in my Marsha Neal Studio Etsy shop at sale prices through Dec. 2, 2013.
For Black Friday through Cyber Monday to take advantage of the marketing that goes on during this weekend that kicks off the holiday shopping season, I am offering an extra 10% off sale and regular priced items when you enter coupon code: Thanks10 into your cart when you are checking out of my Etsy shop – until the end of the day on Dec. 2, 2013.
Hoping these extra discounts help your holiday project budget go a bit further this year!
Thank you for your continued support of my work!!!
And while you are clicking and cruising around, make sure to check out a lot of Handmade Artists that are also offering specials over this weekend (may not be every day – so read their shop announcements!).
Giving the Pottery Wheel a try
I woke up today in a really good mood. I think it was getting that extra hour back & having it light out in the morning.
So after creating a few images to help promote First Friday Art Walk (for the AWETeam – Art Walk Etsy Team), getting some orders organized, doing a bit of floor cleaning – while contemplating this huge issue with Etsy and the "handmade" community, I decided that what I really needed to do today was try out my kick wheel…
It has been since 2001 that I sat at a kick wheel. So I had to dig up memories of the process and figure out which basic tools I needed for this refresher session.
My intentions were purely to introduce myself to my clay body on the wheel – especially since I just finished pugging it a couple of weeks ago.
I found that the clay was still a bit short.
But I still enjoyed playing and remembering the process and what the tools are useful for.
This clay is just not ready to cooperate yet – but soon…
And throwing for the first time allowed me to see where the clay is going to go.
I am going to keep working at it and little by little make some very simple forms.
Most likely some bowls. I like that you can use bowls every day and special occasions alike.
And the final test is the cut through to see about thickness. I am going to focus on form & technique.
All of that thrown clay is back to the scrap pile ready to be wedged and thrown again.
Don’t forget that a lot of items currently in my Etsy shop are on sale until November 9, 2013.
Etsy Shop Update and First Friday
I’ve finally gotten my Marsha Neal Studio Etsy Shop updated!!!
And just in time for the November 1-3, 2013 First Friday Art Walk Weekend!
Ceramic Bats and Bead Groupings
Next on my update “To Do” list is to send out my mailing list (I love to send out little bonus things for my email newsletter subscribers)!
Tiny Ceramic Vessels
As a nature enthusiast I find that I like to pick up and collect little things while outdoors and bring them back into my studio for inspiration.
Some of my favorite things to collect are seed pods, small flowers that my kids pick for me, and just about anything with cool textures.
Rustic Seed Pod Collector Vessel
And with my body of work going more towards these organic shapes, textures and color palettes, it just seemed natural that these old seed pods would find a home in these. I also liked putting a little air plant from the local garden center into them!
Hanging Ceramic Vessel with Air Plant.
Here is a bit of a visual insight into how I create these and make them ready for you to use in your home:
Ceramic clay rolled out into cones, holes added, set up to dry, then bisque fire.
Layers of glaze applied to bisque pieces. Pieces are suspended during the glaze firing (over 2200 degrees F).
Soft copper wire (16 or 18 gauge) is oxidized and cleaned for a rustic look.
When working out an idea, one has to start with what you know.
Just like with jewelry design, every piece needs to details attended to – no wire ends poking out.
This beginning phase is a good place to try out technique to see how to get to the end fastest without compromising quality.
Some things work, others don’t. Taking pictures and notes help with remembering lessons learned.
Nylon jaw pliers are great for cleaning up those bends from forming.
Time to gather Seed Pods and the vessels to take photos in natural daylight.
I love the way this torn Seed Pod Collector Vessel looks.
Rustic Seed Pod Collector or Air Plant Holder Vessel.
Glazed Seed Pod Collector or Air Plant Holder.
Royal Blue Seed Pod Collector or Air Plant Holder Vessel.
These will start out in my Marsha Neal Studio Etsy shop where most of my OOAK work is.
My Marsha Neal Studio website is still there – especially for individual silks. One week I will sit and get it all reorganized so people can shop in either places.
Pugmill Finale For This Year
It feels great to have finished up all the pugging of my ceramic clay just before we start to hit freezing during the nights!
De-Aired Clay Pugs 12 rows wide x 3 rows deep x 7 rows up.
It took me about 4 straight days of pugging (10 hour days) to reclaim about 1000 pounds of useable clay.
Wet and Dry Scrap Clay Combined in Pugmill Mixer
Then add in time of lugging the buckets up and wet clay back down… Pshew!
Dry Scrap Clay into Pugmill
Here is what it looks like adding a bunch of the dry scrap (both bone dry and leather-hard).
Clay slurry into pugmill with dry clay.
And here is the slurry that I also had – this is like muck and slime – completely saturated particles of clay in water.
Pug of Clay starting to emerge de-aired from pugmill.
Hard to believe that after just 5-10 minutes of mixing once you get the proportions of dry and wet right, you get clay coming out that is totally usable.
Finally done with the buckets!
And out of all of these buckets I have been using for years and years, I am finally able to get down to keeping just about 8. The rest will be put into the recycle bin and made into something else down the road.
Pugmill put away for the winter.
And now we can have our garage back. The pugmill is all cleaned up, sealed up, and ready to chill out until spring.
I plan on throwing quite a bit on the wheel this winter and I really hope that I can use this machine more regularly to get my money’s worth out of it.
