2. Milo After making a Milo mug this year, a mini Milo tin was top of the list to create for this years Aussie classic advent calendar. For the Milo, I shaped this by hand starting with a large coil and creating pinch pot style shapes. I really wanted you to be able to use it for little trinket spots on your shelf. Either to hold a candle, some little flowers or a little succulent bud. Out of all the pieces, this one took the longest… can you believe that? Sometimes the simplest designs take so long. Each one took over an hour from sculpting to painting. The three layers in each step really started to consume the process, particularly in the bold Milo font. I feel after this piece I have truly gotten my Milo inspired art out of my system. The only thing I think I would love to do is do a series of tin shaped mugs with native florals like my original for this piece!

1. Tomato Sauce For day one I created a little stem vase shaped as a tomato sauce bottle. Tomato sauce is a pantry staple, best served on a hot sausage roll, mystery bag in bread, or over some hot chippies at the footy. This one was definitely one of my favourites from the calendar. I loved the little tomato detail and the rich green to complement the red. It feels like a bottle of @heinz_au with a little mini touch. One slight touch is that I made a speckled underglaze for the bottle colour. Unfortunately, I didn’t add the right amount so it’s not as speckley as I wanted it to be but I think it’s perfect regardless! From what I hear, our tomato sauce is not much different to ketchup but I am so excited to finally try the US version when I visit next year!