Ms McManus attended art school 20 years ago and although she loved her short introduction into ceramics, she chose to major in painting and put her initial love of ceramics aside.

She spent many years travelling and painting was conducive to her life during that time, however when she moved back to her hometown of Brogo around five years ago, she was inspired by a friend to get her hands back into some clay again.

At that point it was too late in the year to become a member of Bega Valley Potters and so Ms McManus tried her hand at hand building to create unique ceramics pieces. It was also easier to hand build pieces rather than set up a pottery wheel each time she wanted to create having a young child at the time.

Although she has now been a BVP member for a number of years, and has access to the pottery wheels at the group's studio, she has decided to largely stick with her coil and pinch hand-building technique.

"I enjoyed making a vessel that sort of was quite similar to a thrown object, but having made it, there was something really meditative about that process. I just loved it so much, it became a signature thing for me," she said.

Although Ms McManus' artworks and paintings have featured in exhibitions before, Ceramics for the Queen will be her first solo ceramics exhibition.

She has teamed up with Green Queen owner and friend, Krystina Kasprzak, to create a week-long exhibition in partnership with Art Month of the Sapphire Coast, being run by the Bega Valley Regional Gallery.

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Her ceramic pieces featured in the exhibition have been hand carved and painted with inspiration from vintage fabrics as seen on dresses from Green Queen, pieces of material she has collected, or from pieces of Ms McManus' own wardrobe.

She uses the sgraffito technique, which involves scratching through a few layers of white slip, or liquified clay, over a darker clay body. She then colours in the design with underglazes and oxides.

"As far as inspiration goes, there are a few pretty exciting pieces, the two pieces [pictured above] are from two dresses in the shop, so those dresses will be on mannequins and the piece will be presented next to it."

"Some of the patterns may be pretty vague, I might have just been wearing an apron and just painted from it at home, they don't necessarily have a huge resemblance, I've just sort of coloured in, but other pieces are being really faithful," she said.

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The pieces will be unveiled at the opening night on Friday August 13 during a ticketed COVID Safe event.

Her work will be on sale and will be available to be viewed at Green Queen during opening times from August 13 until August 20. Also available for purchase will be ceramic earrings with sterling silver hooks created by Ms McManus for the exhibition.

The registration for tickets to the opening night of the exhibition have already sold out. The event will run from 5pm and is set to be a night full of great art and music.

Also happening in Bega on Friday August 13 is Food Truck Friday with special performances in Littleton Gardens as well as late night shopping throughout the township.

For more information on Art Month, head to their website.