Bud Vases as Needle Holders at Bead Fest Philadelphia

In just a week I will be arriving at Bead Fest in Philadelphia to get my artist table set up.

This is the first time in 6 years I have done this show myself.

Marsha Neal Studio Artist Booth 570A Bead Fest Philly Aug 21-23, 2015

My friend Darlene of D7Studio

(booth 366) has been taking my bead work with her to bead shows here in the north east US since I stopped doing shows. And I feel that at least for Bead Fest (and Bead & Button) it is time for me to reconnect in a physical presence way with my friends and customers.

Darlene will still have the majority of my "bead" work at her booth 366 with all kinds of cool jewelry supplies and other artists work (Nolly from Nolly's Folly).

My artist table 570A will focus more on my bracelet kits, sculptural beads, vessels and small terrarium pieces. And I am right with Staci, Diane, and Nikki - it is going to be such a fun creative area (all of the show will be - but especially the area where the artists are!)

So for those of you that do work with any kind of crafting needle - you should swing by and get one of my small vessels. They were originally intended to be used as bud vases for teeny flowers (my little kids like to pick flowers for me - but usually they don't have much of a stem) but they sweat water, so they are now only for "dry use".

Here is a quick shot of the various stages of me making these small vessels. I use my own bisqued clay texture plates that I made with flowers and seed pods from my garden. The clay is cut to a general size, and is rolled into the plate to get the reverse image. I have to work quick to not have cracked walls, as these are not large pieces of clay. 

Here they are drying out on a piece of drywall scrap after being made (the drywall helps absorb the moisture from the clay and helps avoid stress drying cracks).

The bottoms are kept a bit thicker to allow the piece to stay upright while in use.

And one of my favorite parts of figuring out the design of these is allowing the bottom of the piece to come up around the sides and create this organic line and bevel. The line collects the glaze during the firing and allows for puddling. The bevel conveys a sense of the piece being lighter.

And above you can see the dried seed pod from a newer plant (Begonia) that I used to press into the clay a couple of years ago. Makes me want to start to make some new plates with the growing season coming to an end in a couple of months. My favorite time of the year to collect!

And if you are attending Bead Fest Philadelphia August 2015 copy and print this $5 weekend admission pass! The regular fee I believe is $14 for the weekend pass (free if you are taking classes).

Hope to see you there!