As a child Danielle Boothroyd spent many hours playing with the clay she dug out of her family dam and those early explorations became a life-long personal journey of creative discovery.

Nowadays Danielle operates out of her studio in Moonambel, working with hand building, wheel work and sculpture, and experimenting with different clays, firing techniques and decorative elements. Danielle also loves to use colour in her work and much of her recent pieces have been beautifully bright and colourful.

Lately she has been exploring Saggar firing, a technique that uses salt, coffee, banana skins and other organic matter, held against the clay body during the firing process, to produce varying shades of black, grey and brown.

Drawing her inspiration from everything around her – poetry, fabrics, history, people, places – Danielle let’s it all stew away inside her waiting for the right moment for the idea to reveal itself and for the clay to tell it’s own story as she begins to work with it. The process is somewhat organic and at times even she is surprised by what emerges.

She runs individual classes and group workshops, and works with people with disabilities and it gives her great joy to share her love of ceramics with others and to inspire them to unlock their own creativity through working with clay.

Over the Tiny Towns Arts Trail Danielle’s work will be on show, and available for purchase, at the Ministry of Fun in Dunolly.