This is part of my prototype clay postcard after it was bisque fired in the kiln and will be part of a promotional piece for Digital Imaging, which is part of my Foundation Degree.  We were asked to create a promotional piece but in a quirky way.  As I had worked in clay before I thought it would be a different way of doing it.  Once it has been glaze fired I will scan the image onto an Apple Mac so that I can produce paper or card copies that can be given out to promote our StudioFour Gallery.

I decided to start with the hearts on Carol's section.  Hearts feature in a lot of Carol's textile art and she also loves the colour red, so I thought it a good place to start putting the body stains on to the clay.  I had asked all the girls Michelle Stringer, Louise Knight and Carol Newton what colours they wanted so I chose colours that closely represented what they wanted. The body stains look lighter after they have dried onto the clay and don't always represent the colour that is seen at his stage as they alter during the glaze firing stage.  Once the body stain is applied it is important to rub some of it off with a wet sponge to help create texture, light and shade to add depth.

Michelle likes the colours blue, beige, tans and rusts. I used a Cornflower blue and painted some Rutile over it to create a blend of the two colours as I've had success with this technique before.

Louise creates quirky building from the places she has visited and I wanted to try to capture and essence of that for this piece of work.  I applied Turquoise body stain to her name making sure to apply plenty in the indentations of the letters and then wiping the excess away with a damp sponge.

This is the finished part of Louise's section. I added Manganese Dioxide for the buildings and again rubbed off the excess.  For the buildings in the background I added Slate Grey to create the illusion of distance and Rutile to the doors on the bottom left hand side.

As can be seen here Michelle's part is taking shape.  I used Azure blue to the top left hand side, Rutile for her name, Red for textured areas, Turquoise and Tan. Michelle like to use texture in her work, so although there is no specific scene to look at, I wanted to represent various textures in an abstract way.

For Carol's section I used Cornflower Blue, Turquoise, Red, Leaf Green, Rutile, Azure Blue and Egg Yellow.  Because Carol uses textiles and threads in her work I have used various found objects to imprint into the clay, which I've tried to enhance with the body stains and how I've applied them.

Colour and texture play an important role in my artwork.  I used a variety of found object to imprint into my section of the clay postcard to reflect my style including a bit of landscape.  I'm not as pleased with this part of the postcard as it was the last one I worked on before bisque firing took place, so it appears to me not to be as cohesive as it could have done.

I used Lilac for the letters, Emerald Green, Leaf Green Turquoise, Red, Azure Blue, Mazarine Blue and I blended Egg Yellow and Red to create a Orange.

For the centre of the postcard i used Black body stain which replicates our background on our Studio.  I rubbed of some of it to reveal the texture.  I left the letters untouched by the body stains although it was tricky and had to clean them out with a fine brush and water to remove the excess.

Here is the final piece before the transparent glaze was added.  I'm quite pleased with the overall look.  The colours will be darker than they are in this photograph.  This took about 3 hours to complete due to deciding on colours, applying them and then using a sponge to clean excess away.  this is time consuming as the sponge has to be re-soaked and squeezed after each wiping as you re-apply the stain if it is not cleaned.

These final images were taken after I had dipped it into a bath of Transparent glaze.  I had applied liquid wax to the bottom of the clay postcard, which repels the glaze.  This has to be wiped off with a damp sponge because the glaze would stick to the kiln shelf and potentially ruin your work.  Any small holes in the drying glaze can be rubbed into or spots of fresh glaze dropped on to it to give an even coverage.

Clay prototype of a postcard

This is an acrylic painting from a photograph with shallow depth of field. I chose to replicate this by bringing the Cyclamen into the foreground using underpainting to gradually deepen the colours to make it look more realistic.  I used acrylic in the background but in looser brushstrokes that merged into one another.

 I tried to apply the acrylic in a watercolour consistency gradually building up layers with some success.

This page started off with the right hand top image in pencil and water soluble black pen in a mixture of crosshatching and using a damp brush to move the ink about.  I was unsure of it at first so I replicated the image in 2b and 4b pencil capturing the delicateness and the strength of the Cyclamen.  This was done on a prepared page using emulsion white and yellow with watercolour over the top to produce a resist of the two mediums.

This is a close up of a Cyclamen head looking in towards the stamens.  Again i built up the colours as in underpainting to create depth and texture.

I wanted this and the image below to show how delicate the petals and the colours are on most varieties of Cyclamen.  I think I have achieved this with the lower flower above and the buds on the image below.

I sketched this Cyclamen using 2b and 4b pencil.  This typically shows the delicacy of this beautiful flower.  I used some crosshatching and rubbing the lead in.  

Pansy Batique on cotton.  These are relatively easy to do especially the ink, but sketching out the design with hot wax is quite tricky.

Like the painting of the trees, this was influenced from the same photograph.  It look me about 5 hours carving the negative spaces.  I thoroughly enjoyed working with this piece.  I used St Thomas clay and the glazes are Barium Blue on the negative spaces and on the trees and in the foreground I used Manganese Oxide, which I rubbed areas off with wire wool to affect sunlight.
 his is the photograph that influenced my ceramic work and watercolour paintings.  The tree learning to the left reminds me of a stag standing on its back legs. Beautiful day out with my husband, son and grandson.
 For a project last year I took one of my daughters mirrors out with me to Llandudno, Ros on Sea and Rhyll to take some quirky photographs,  the mirror is leant against the steps looking out onto the beach.  I purposely wanted to look at the mirror and take the reflection.  I got some very interesting images.
 Two brave swimmers.  This is Llandudno.
 This is one of my favourite images taken in Llandudno and one of the first photographs I sold when StudioFour Gallery, the name of the premises I share with my friends.  Love the colours.

My first experiment with watercolour.  This is one of a trypic | painted last summer using a limited palette of six colours.  It was influenced from a photograph I took at Wincle in April 2011 whilst on a walk.

I like the colour combination on this plate. I used corrugated card, textured paste, PVA glue and string.

Another plate from the same previous project.

Again another plate,  As with most of my plates for this project I used PVA glue, texture paste, string and embroidery threads to achieve varying texture on the prints. The wavy lines represent the waves of the ocean, something Gaudi was influenced by and the organic shapes are also reminiscent of Gaudi's organic shapes within his work, like Sagrada Familia on his architecture, windows and furniture.

A Collograph plate inspired by a trip to Barcelona with college in January 2012.  I was greatly influenced by Antoni Gaudi and Hundertvasser an Austrian artist of the mid to late 20th century, who was also inspired by Gaudi.  They both used spirals in their architecture.  I used the colours of the sea to influence my prints.  Although I achieved some nice prints from this plate and others I made I actually preferred the plates themselves.

This is called Dahlia Head.  This was painted using traditional under-painting and was my first attempt.  It became the first piece of work that I sold and I'm quite proud of it.  I used Acrylic paint on a prepared box canvas gradually building the colours.  I used a limited palette for this project as I wanted to keep it simple and also I didn't know if it be satisfactory.