Abstract Purple Landscape (6 August 2009)

(6cm x 6cm) I mounted this abstract panel (which bears a passing resemblance to Munch's The Scream) in a triple fold aperture card for my cousin Hannah's wedding. The original plan was to use one of the purple landscape panels, but this turned out so well that I decided to use this.

Once I had selected all the useful bits for the other panels (see below), I gathered up the scrap clay and pressed it together. Then on a whim I decided to see what would happen if I rolled out the scrap clay, and this was the amazing result! The actual rolled out panel was quite large (at least twice the size it is now), and so I used the aperture to select the best pattern and trimmed a square to fit the card aperture. After 4 coats of matt varnish, the piece was finished and I stuck it into the aperture using double sided sticky tape. Although the panel is quite large, because it is only 1-2mm thick, it is relatively light and works well in a card. I will be working more with this technique in the very near future.

Purple Moonscapes Nos 1, 2 & 3 (6 August 2009)

No 1 (5cm x 2cm) After the initial landscape attempts, I had lots of wonderful snippets of interesting patterns left over. I spent about 2 hours experimenting with different effects, and then three panels looked as though they were moonscapes as highlights of colour appeared.

So I added a tiny ball of pale clay and rolled it out as carefully as possible, to avoid distortion of the circle. These will make great card toppers or small pictures - with this technique, I have managed to create a painted effect similar to encaustic art which I just love.

No 2 (2.5cm x 2.5cm) This nearly didn't make it as a finished panel because the disc became very distorted when I rolled it out. By this time, the clay was over-conditioned, and on a number of occasions I had to put the clay in the fridge to cool it down. Here, I pulled the edges of the panel to correct the distortion, and at the last minute I decided to bake it and see how it turned out. I rather like the effect of not having completely square edges.

No 3 (3.5cm x 1.7cm) By this time, the useable panels were getting smaller and smaller, but I wanted to experiment with putting tree shapes into the landscape. Here, I added a couple of tiny strands of scrap clay, one of which was slightly twisted, and then hand rolled them lightly into the panel. I think the effect is a little chunky for the size of panel, and I'm working on ways to incorporate inclusions to suggest detailed and delicate landscape features.

Purple Landscapes Nos 1, 2 & 3 (6 August 2009)

(No 1 - 5cm x 4.5cm) I have had a lot of fun experimenting with marbling techniques and hand-rolling. After my first forays into this area last week, I wanted to have more control over layering colours.

In this first attempt, I mixed four shades of purple and then started with a layer of the palest shade. In this panel, you can only see three shades, as hand-rolling the panels distorted the panels more than I had anticipated. Where the colours were not completely mixed, there is a pleasing marbling effect which adds to the overall painted effect. Rolling each layer down to about 2mm thickness was quite hard work, and the panels never seemed to go where I intended, which added to the fun of it! After layering all four colours, I then looked for the best part of the pattern and trimmed it accordingly.

(No 2 - 3.5cm x 3cm) As a result of trimming the rolled out clay, this threw up a number of additional panels, and I had a great time sifting through the scraps and finding attractive patterns to use again.

(No 3 - 3.3cm x 2.6cm) I loved this effect which I achieved because the clay was being stretched very thin, leaching out some of the colour. So the dark bands at the bottom of this panel are in fact the same purple as the dark bands in Nos 1 & 2.

Layered Landscape No 1 (1 August 2009)

(2" x 1")

I'm very excited by this piece. I discovered this effect by accident when conditioning clay in the pasta machine. When folding clay back on itself, if the edges are not aligned, it creates this layered effect whilst keeping the clay at 1-2mm depth.

The next trick will be to create layers with different shades to give perspective. I will try hand-rolling different layers. Watch this space!