Laura Hogg fired from The Apprentice 2012

Apprentice reject Laura Hogg slammed the modern art featured in the show and blamed it for getting her fired by Lord Sugar.

The Glaswegian bridal shop owner blamed the Hammer Horror-themed work by James Jessop for her team's failure to sell the most urban art at a London gallery. She added: "I am so confident in my own sales ability and I can't believe that's what sent me home."

Laura - who became the subject of criticism on Twitter after she complained on the show "being an attractive businesswoman can have its ups and downs" - proclaimed: "I am going be one of Scotland's next big exports".

She faced Lord Sugar in the boardroom for the third time after project manager Tom Gearing chose her to join him for failing to contribute enough sales for Team Phoenix.

Dara O'Briain, host of The Apprentice: You're Fired, asked Laura whether she thought she was going to be fired: "I think so yes," she responded. "I think you can see it all over my face, to be honest with you. I think I lost that little bit of oomph in me in that final boardroom. I knew I was vulnerable, I mean ultimately, I didn't do the sales did I?"

Talking about her struggle to sell on the task, the Glaswegian said: "I just didn't work smart; I was leaving people too long. I think as the night went on, my confidence was dipping. I knew I was behind on sales and I ultimately knew that could be a problem. It's a very personal thing, art, and I think I just thought: 'I can't make somebody take this'. I wasn't really comfortable with forcing it on people."

With regard to representing artist James Jessop, she said: "I think the issue was that we were getting a little bit blinded by what we were actually selling, getting a little bit greedy."

She added: "We were thinking that if we just managed to sell one, we would absolutely romp home with the win, and that just wasn't the right decision. I don't know what it was, but me and Tom didn't seem to have an issue with the size of them [the art pieces], and you clearly saw that Adam and Jade when they saw them were like, 'what?'"

Lord Sugar said the task lent itself to what Laura does in her day job, but she didn't sell well. He was also of the opinion that Laura "talks a lot, but doesn't deliver."

In response, she said: "Fair enough - all valid points in the sense of the sales suffered. But I do disagree that it's similar to something I do as a day job, I definitely don't sell monstrosities like that, well I'd like to hope not!" Ouch. I'm sure the artist concerned will love hearing his work dismissed as "monstrosities".

For Laura, being fired was "a bad day at the office."

Laura Hogg was speaking to Dara O'Briain, host of The Apprentice: You're Fired - Wednesdays at 10pm on BBC2

Episode eight: recap

The Apprentice 2012

This week, Lord Sugar challenged the teams to an arty task. The candidates had to represent two urban artists and sell their work to customers, collectors and clients.

Tom Gearing was the project manager of Phoenix. He had wanted to represent Pure Evil, but the artist chose Sterling led by Gabrielle Omar instead.

Both teams had meetings with corporate clients arranged; an art purchase from them would be very good for commission figures. However, Gabrielle's team totally messed up their opportunity with Beefeater Gin. Tom's team fared better with their corporate client.

Next, the important numbers were revealed:

Sterling's client did not order a commission. They had total gallery sales of £11,630, giving a commission of £4,579.65. The total commission for the team was £4,579.65

Phoenix's client placed an order of £5,000, resulting in a commission of £2,000. They had total gallery sales of £5,980, giving a commission of £2,442. The total commission for the team was £4,442

A narrow win, but it's still a win. Sterling were treated to some action painting on a giant canvas. Meanwhile, Phoenix were left to rue their bad luck. Tom took Laura and Jade Nash back with him into the boardroom, resulting in Laura's firing.