Art Elements Blog Monthly Theme: Birds of Prey
Welcome to this months Art Elements Blog hop: Birds of Prey theme picked by Cathy. As a child I loved watching birds. In college I took a few Avian Biology classes that established a firm base knowledge and appreciation of many kinds of birds. My passion has kept my field guide and binoculars at the ready.
These days I keep an eye on the nesting pair of Red Tailed Hawks in our back wooded area and the competition with the Great Horned Owl that showed up a few winters ago.
I have been working on getting better with my 3D needle felting skills over the last month. Working part time at Sarafina Fiber Art allows me direct access to Sara (the artist behind the business) and she is helping me along so I can teach some beginning classes in the Sarafina Art House so she can focus more on the advanced classes. So this Birds of Prey theme was the perfect way for me to practice some Owls.
Here starts my journey…
The first thing I do when I am about to launch into some creative time is find some inspiration: Pinterest is a great visual place to go. Knowing I wanted to brush up on my Sarafina Needle Felting Techniques, I headed to watch some Sarafina Videos: Sarafina Mini Tutorial: Owl and Sarafina Baby Owl Tutorial.
I picked up some scraps of Sarafina’s Merino Prefelt: Flat Matt at work and cut it in small bits that I pulled into some owl head shapes. I was just adding layers of top coat roving and fooling around with wool sculpted shapes loosely based on the Sarafina Owl Mini Tutorial. I ended up with two flat ornament size Great Horned Owl (inspired) heads.
Moving on from the flat 2D owl head I thought that I should try to make it in 3D. I was a bit freaked out as it looked like a decapitated owl head – not really what I was thinking… However it did spark an idea! I love Jim Henson’s Labyrinth especially the Fireys. “Hey Lady! That’s My Head!” Yes – I had to attempt a Fireys head! I plan on making that one better again when I’m not so tired from felting everything else that day.
I ended up making this Mini Owl (minus the sheep curls/locks from the tutorial). I like making a few of the same kind of pieces and tweeking them as I figure out things. The last image with the small green owls are made in a similar way to the larger owl – but at 1/3 scale and with lots of colored locks.
Thanks for taking the time to read this post and for checking out the other artists participating this month:
Guests:
Team Members:
Marsha (you are here)
Handmade Component Bazaar Jan. 3 Destash Sale
I am ready for the new year to begin and to start a new body of work. This one day show in Handmade Component Bazaar Facebook Group will be your chance to pick up a bunch of my pieces at discounted pricing. I will have things marked down into the range from 20% to 70% off retail pricing.
I will also be marking down ready to ship ceramic items in my Marsha Neal Studio Etsy Shop as well – and will create a special SALE Category for those items.
The Handmade Component Bazaar Group show will start around 10am on 1/3/19 and listings will be removed beginning 1/4/19 around 7am, with the wall being cleared by 10am to be ready for the next artist show.
My Etsy Shop sale will run through the weekend, and I may end up adding some items there as well. Please let me know if you plan to shop both so I can ship your items together.
Happy New Year!
Art Elements Monthly Theme: White
This months Art Elements Theme is based upon using white in your work. When I think of white, it tends to be in a base color sort of path. It is something to give definition, light, a brightness behind the color.
I love any bead with the AB finish that reflects a bit of color.
Earlier this month when I was making the blog post for the Linda Genaw’s Peyote Fan Earrings over on Art Elements Blog, I made sure to make up a pair that would fit into our white theme. Here are some other items from around my studio (holidays and both of my kids birthdays are in December, so my time got away from me).
Silver and White are so elegant together.
White glaze can pop or make the items it is next to pop.
White can show off the details.
White reminds me of cold and winter.
I hope you have fun hopping around to see what these other wonderful artists came up with for this months theme! And please stop by the Art Elements Blog for details on our next theme.
Guest Artists
Art Elements Team
One Sweet Bead Market One Day Show December 4, 2018
I’ve been working non-stop since my last online show, and not all in my clay studio. I did an Etsy Shop update and plan another one shortly for your crafty gift giving or for self satisfaction with gifts to yourself for working so hard on life! Now it’s time for my One Sweet Bead Market Show!
Around 10am on Tuesday, December 4, 2018 I will start listing my ceramic bead items in the One Sweet Bead Market Facebook Group. I do a lot of BIN (Buy It Now) and MTO (Made To Order) for a set price. It is a bit too much for me to keep track of auction pricing during these 24 hour shows as it is quite crazy trying to keep track of listings as is.
Here are some photos of the pieces I have selected to put up for sale in this show (I sure hope I can photograph them and get them labeled in time!):
Ones that do not sell may very likely head over to Etsy. I know not everyone is on Facebook and a lot of people work and do not have the time to shop in these online groups. But if you are around, I have some giveaways planned. I always start with one in the intro post, so make sure to comment to get entered into that one.
Here is a link to the One Sweet Bead Market Facebook Group.
My next online show is scheduled for January 3, 2019 in the Handmade Component Bazaar.
Art Elements Blog Monthly Theme: Stars
Welcome to my post for the Art Elements Blog Star Theme Reveal Blog Hop.
While working in my studio this last month I’ve listened to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy on audio, then put the movies on in sequence while making some needle felted whisky gnome bottle toppers (the movies play in the background as I have seen them so many times, the visual happens automatically in my head). So automatically the thoughts of Wizards, Elves, the King, and many symbols throughout the books and movies inspires me.
Marsha Neal Studio Needle Felted Star Whisky Gnome in progress.
I usually make my Whisky Gnome bottle toppers with an ombre hat and accents in dyed curls (I work part time at Sarafina Fiber Art, helping to purchase, wash and dye sheep curls as part of my job). So this gnome is a nocturnal guy that has shadow earthy colors and stars to adorn his cap.
Marsha Neal Studio Star Whisky Gnome Bottle Topper.
I call them Whisky Gnomes because if they were to drink, I think Whisky would be more their style, but they do quite enjoy sitting atop a bottle of wine – without any metal pieces left to pull at their wooly insides – so they can see better.
If you are interested in needle felting I would highly recommend checking out the Sarafina Fiber Art Website, look at the tutorials page, and get started there. I was just telling Sara today that it is a really cool thing that she does by teaching a lot of things for free on You Tube, and selling the most awesome wool supplies out there. Jenny (also an Art Elements Blog Contributor) works there with me too. We are just 2 of the current 10 people Sara employees. Small artist run businesses Rock! Like – she is a for real Rock STAR!
Marsha Neal Studio Star Object.
This star shaped piece was in a small series of experiments trying to incorporate a lot of the shapes I use for my beads into one larger piece. It is a bit on the pointy side…
Marsha Neal Studio Decal Star Piece.
Another thing I have been working on (a friend asked if I could make him a custom Christmas Tree ornament) and I came up with using the wooden rolling pin on part of the clay, then cutting out the shape. This one above was a test piece – I’ve decided to go with all white glaze for ease of color transition. The star doodles on the front and back are both ceramic decals that I made of my drawings. I wanted to test the white glaze and it’s compatibility with the decals. The Zentangle inspired decal is composed of a lot of my doodle drawings used to make my texture plates from 12+ years ago. A star turned into a spiral…
Marsha Neal Studio Gold Glaze Overlay.
As I was testing the ceramic decals, I decided it was time for me to run some tests on this low-fire metallic glaze – made some star shapes again. So I picked up some oddly fired spacer beads that already went to Cone 5 (around 2200 degrees F) in their glaze firing. I applied the Metallic Glaze, and fired to Cone 04 (around 1971 degrees F). I like the effect it creates.
Marsha Neal Studio Star Spiral Design.
And as I was working through tests, I decided to use my Star Spiral design pieces with a translucent blue and some floaty glazes (above left). These turned out as expected (a good thing). The ones on the right though – these I applied two different metallic glaze colors onto bisqued (Cone 04) pieces and fired them again to Cone 04. In truth – I really do not like the feel of the metallic glaze alone. I definitely think these need to be used in layering to make them look as I want. An open door to play with. It took this star theme for me to break out the sparkly shiny glazes and run some tests. I am happy that I did.
Thanks for taking the time to cruise through this post. Below are links to the other participants in this monthly Art Elements Blog Theme Post: Stars. Have fun being inspired and seeing what kind of creative things others are coming up with:
