Mixed Media Relief Block with Textile details.

I am doing some clay lessons at work, I am no expert in this area at all but I did a training session where I made the following.  However, what shall I do with it as I really like how it turned out.

Firstly we made a clay tray and created marks using a variety of different objects.  My favourite was carefully pushing string into the surface and then pulling it back out again.  The next stage was to fill the tray with about 3cm of pottery plaster and let it fully set.

Once fully set the clay is carefully peeled away and you are left with a block with which you can use to create further patterns in clay objects.

Now due to one thing and another I never got to use this but I really like how it looks so I decided to get my little round paints out and add some colour.

There little paints really are very versatile and I was not really sure how they would work on the plaster surface.  They did not soak in as much as I thought it would.  I decided to go for a blended range of sea colours with a little sand thrown in

The paint is now fully dry and I think it has about three really good coats which just enhanced the blending of the colours more.

The paint also highlights the decorative relief of the block.

I am not stopping here as an idea began to surface as I painted the plaster.

I found some handmade paper and tissue paper with which to add some background.
On to this I added some further textures.

It does look a little plain so I want to add a textiles element to the overall effect.  I hope that this may be an idea that I can take further with other materials.

These are silk cords which have been hand painted using silk paints in a range of colours.
I want to extend the curves left in the plaster by the string on to the hand made paper and tissue paper.

this adds to the background.

Shall I trim the ends a little?

Attaching it all together was really tricky in terms of the method to use but I think it is secure.  It has not moved all afternoon!

This has been hung up all afternoon and nothing has fallen off and it seems to be really secure and I am quite pleased with.  Must think about doing some more ideas along this theme.  I really like the tones of the colours that have appeared by mixing water and allowing the colours to merge which I did not think would happen as I wondered if the paint would sink in to the surface.

I did promise something that was not blue as well!
xx