Nicola Hale is Penarth's most talented artist you've probably never heard of. She's worked various jobs in her life, but pottery has been a constant.

Like many people across the country, her main source of income ran dry when COVID struck. The silver-lining? She can now fully devote herself to her craft.

She's looking to Penarth for commissions.

It seems artists fall into one of two camps: those who relentlessly court publicity and the camera shy.

Penarth's Nicola Hale falls firmly into the latter.

"I'm sorry but no," she says when I ask her if I can take some photos. "I'm actually pretty shy. You won't find any photos of me anywhere. I can send you photos of my work though."

The "work" - miniature replicas of buildings she sculpts from clay. Detailed, bespoke, and as charming as Wallace and Gromit, they're the product of a life-long obsession with a niche craft, quaint little works of art.

Nicola's artistic journey began with a compost hole her father had dug in the garden. Her dad burrowed so deep that he hit red terracotta earthenware clay.

"I saw it and became immediately obsessed. I'd go prospecting for it and make all these little pots. It's just something that's innate in me I think. I later bought a £10 bag of clay and started making little bits for my friends. When your friends like what you do that gives you a little boost."

The obsession lasted through her teenage years into adulthood. When she moved from South Wales to Tufnell Park in London, she enrolled in a pottery class offered by the Camden Education Institute.

"I got a little bit of formal tuition there and got the rest from books and good old fashioned practise."

Monetising art is nigh on impossible, but Nicola was able to do so when she became a mentor at the Amelia Trust in Barry, using pottery to assist in the development of troubled children.

"At the Amelia Trust farm we used things like pottery and farming and outdoor activities to boost the self-esteem of young people who have gone off the rails.

"We took on a lot of ex-council care children and psychiatric ward children. It felt good to use my passion to help others. At the time I was also doing children's pottery parties, which was quite a pioneering thing as I've not heard of other people doing it."

Childrens parties and group pottery classes both fell victim to COVID. Nicola's formal work with clay dried up.

But all the while Nicola had been eking out a living with the parties and at the Amelia Trust, she had also been taking intermittent commissions sculpting buildings and little ceramic figurines. It was here that her creative spirit was flourishing.

"I love architecture too, so making these little models is really great. Since COVID hit I've been doing it full time. I taught for a long time but that took me away from my art, so in a way it's given me the time to get back to what I love doing and what I do best.

"The only problem is that I'm an artist, not an advertiser, so it's hard to find commissions. At the same time, as an artist I'm used to having a pretty slow and erratic source of income, so I'm sure I'll be okay."

Dunwich Pottery, her newly-named business, also sells little sculptures of things like crows and wizards and halloween pumpkins.

"Whether I can survive on it is yet to be seen. If I can get two commissions a week and sell a few of the little pieces, I could probably live on it. But it's early days in the crisis so let's wait and see.

"The truth is I'd do it whether I get paid or not. I love mud, minerals, geology, architecture, and this combines it all. But the main thing is, and always has been, that you get to take this glob of basically nothing (mud or clay) and turn it into something beautiful. That's what art is all about really."

If you would life a miniature replica of your home, cottage, listed building, church or even pub, contact Nicola on 07749443146 or [email protected].

Prices start at £75.