Puppies & Pottery

Yet again I am doing a passion project but this time I am doing it on Maltese dogs and clay making. I have done an assignment on the Maltese dog and I have made two ceramic bowls, one food bowl that says Pipper on it and a water bowl.

The ceramic bowls have not been fired yet or glazed but I will be sending them to the kiln next week.

In the next two weeks I will be posting some videos of my top 3 tips for making with clay and how to do a basic pinch pot. I chose to do my passion project on Maltese dogs because my parents say that if I stay on top of my asthma (I am allergic to dog dander that sets off my asthma) we may get one because they are hypoallergenic.

Here is a bit about what I found out about MALTESE DOGS.

The Maltese dog is a fearless, energetic, cute, and social dog, that is the oldest of the toy breed, dating back two millennia. 

The exact origin of the dog is uncertain, most believe the dog is from the isle of Malta (that's how they where given their name), some believe they come from Italy or Asia.

The Maltese had a part in developing other toy breeds all over Asia and by the 15th century the Maltese had won the hearts of many royals ans aristocrats. 

The dog has survived through out many more centuries, through a slight problem in the 17th and18th centuries when they tried to turn the dog to the size of a squirrel but by breeding it with other small dogs they saved it from dying out. The Maltese dog as we know it today has been developed by English breeders (the royals do love their Maltese). 

Since the late 1800's the Maltese dog has become one of the richest and most popular dogs in the world, prize wining at many dog shows with their button eyes and long white coats.

A Maltese height if male is 8 to 10 inches and if female 7 to 9 inches. 

This is not my photo - I found it on google, if it's yours please let me know so I can credit you xxx

These are the things I want to remember for when I get my doggy or also known as...

Taking care of your MALTESE DOG

1. They shouldn't weigh more than 4-6 pounds. You can tell if your Maltese dog is not over weight by placing your hands under their tummies and feeling their ribs - if you can feel them and there is a layer of fat then keep doing what your doing, if not you should put him on a diet.

2. Maltese can get gum problems so remember to brush their teeth every day, they get used to the grooming so start doing it from when they are puppies

3. They have a long white coat which is prone to matting and getting dirty so gently brush your Maltese's hair daily, even if they have the short sporty cut (the sports cut is so cute). 

4. Check your Maltese dogs ears at lease once a week, if the ears are sore, sensitive or even smelly go to your vet for an check cup. Maltese will grow lots of hair in their ears, so go to your groomer or vet to get them plucked and you can get them get to teach you how to do it yourself. 

5. Cut your Maltese dogs nails once to twice a month. If your their nails don't wear out naturaly cutting them will prevent pain and tears.

6. If you can hear their nails click when they walk they are too long. Dogs nails have blood vessels so don't cut them too short or they will bleed and your dog may get scared of the nail clippers, it will be hard to cut them again. If you are worried about cutting then talk to your vet or groomer for advice.

7. Maltese dogs get sad when they're growing teeth so clean your Maltese' eyes with warm water every day to prevent tear stains. 

8. Wash their beard after meals. Purified water is best for Maltese dogs other water may stain.

9. Feed your Maltese dog from ceramic, stainless steel and glass bowls not plastic, plastic bowls can change the colour of the nose, this is very bad.

10. Wash your dogs bowls after meal.

11. A Maltese dog's black nose will go pink if there is not getting enough sun light, so take them outside more often or if the weather is not right take them for a car ride. 

12. Maltese don't do too well in the cold but love the hot weather. They are energetic and lively so they do like walks daily even when puppies and into old age but if you forget, running around the house if enough for them.

13. When grooming your dog you can check for any sores, rashes, signs of infection, redeness, inflammation and discharge.

14. Here are some diseases to watch out for: patellar luxation, portosystemic liver shunt, progressive retinal atrophy, hypoglycemia, white dog shaker syndrome, collapsed trachea and reverse sneezing.

15. Maltese respond well to treats and tummy rubs but that method is not always the best training for dogs, I have heard that respect training is best.

16. It is also good to remember to treat your Maltese dog as if he were a bigger dog, if not then they can become over dependent of the owners and yap and cry. 

17. If you have young children they can some times be rough, can easily sit on, drop, hold too tight and injure the dog. If you have older quieter children that like the responsibility of the grooming then Maltese can be a great family pet. 

18. Maltese get along well with other children, people, cats and dogs if they are socialised with them at an early age. 

19. Also remember that Maltese don't realise how small they are and owners need to protect them fromm dogs that can be 20 times their size. 

Over all Maltese are a cute, happy, exiting & lively little dog that anyone can fall in love with. 

My first radish

This is a photo of my first radish that I grew from a seed all by myself.

At my school we had to do a passion project. I love doing the passion project, it's easy to do when you love what you are doing. It's not really like doing work, you are doing it already and it's fun to share what you are passionate about with others. I love cooking and gardening, especially cooking what I have grown.

Here are all the photos of me growing a radish and others things like beetroot, herbs, carrots, pansies and lettuce.

I planted one seed into each section of an egg carton and I made sure they were not too deep. I kept them warm and moist in a cute little green house I bought from IKEA. After about 5 days my seeds started to shoot up and by day 7 they looked like this ...

 I noticed that the first two leaves were round love heart shaped but then after that they were spiky and pointed. I discovered that when you grow your own radishes not all of them grow round like you see in the shops, some of them grow long and skinny or even pointy.

Then I planted my seedlings out in my garden. My Nanna & Poppa helped me make a garden bed and plant lots of other seedlings. I think growing radishes is a great thing to start with because they are easy to grow.

This is my little sister Olive looking for Easter eggs. You can see my rows of radishes to the right and in the middle before I picked them!

I watered my radishes twice on hot summer days, once on a normal day and not on rainy days. I also put straw, compost manure and fertilizer down. The straw helps keep the soil moist by preventing evaporation. I made sure my soil was the right type for my radishes too. They like peaty soil. But I left some of the soil sandy for the carrots.

These are my beetroots, I can't wait to roast them!

This is my baby basil and dill. You can't see the garlic chives and coriander ... my dad gets stuck into these for our salad and fish for dinner!

This is my Mum's salad with my radishes on top, we also ate them with cheese on oat bread.

Here are my top 10 tips for growing you own food
1. Find a plot in your garden or even in a pot that has plenty of sunshine.
2. Rake out your plot and make sure there is no plastic & big rocks.
3. You will need a couple of basic tools: watering can, spade, trowel, hoe & fork
4. Find out what soil you have, it is probably going to be either Sandy, Clay or Peaty.
5. Find out what vegetables you can grown in your area and in the right season.
6. Choose to grow them from seeds or buy seedlings, it might be easier from seedlings but not as much fun to watch the seeds sprout up and it's more economical.
7. Make sure you feed your vegetables with the right fertilizers, and lay down some straw.
8. Read about your plants on the seed packet or label to check how much sun & water they need and when you can expect to harvest them.
9. You might want to use a little bit of snail bate especially if you are growing lettuce.
10. Sometimes what you plant might not work out, it might die. That's ok, try again or try something different and see if you can learn from what might have gone wrong.

Snail....mail

Last year at school we did a really fun entrepreneur project called Kidpreneur. For my business idea I made letter sets using a Risograph machine to print the paper, I also used lino printing to make the Thank You card, envelopes and stickers.

That red circle is my lino cut flower. To get the two colours red & blue on the letter writing paper, I had to create two layers of drawings both in black and the Risograph printed them on top of each other.

I also created a Pinterest board with lots of great snail mail ideas.

This is what the cute pack looks like when I put it all together,  I even put in some vintage stamps from my collection. You can't really use them but they make the snail mail look really authentic. I think some of the old stamps look better than the ones we have now. What do you think?

I also include recycled envelopes that I made using posters from my mum's old design magazines. My favourite sticker is the tiny baby mushroom. If you think this letter set is really cool you can get one from my online shop or make your own. Let's be penpals!

Passion changes everything

One of my passions is taking photos of nature. I have an Instagram account but it is private so here are some of the photos that are on there.

In one of the photos (bottom right) I am hiking up in Mt Tambourine, Gold Coast on holiday with my Nanna & Poppa. Many of the photos have been taken while going for walks around Adelaide, the Botanic Gardens, turtles in the Himeji Japanese Garden and the beautiful flower is of my passion fruit vine (my passion for passion fruit :D)

Keeping traditions alive (my family heritage is German) you can see me wearing my birks with Adelaide designer Julie White socks. Julie white's husband Peter has also been doing some awesome work with his posters, sending a great message about equality & being Australian. Here is one of his brilliant and moving videos.


My Story My City from Peter Drew on Vimeo.

Here is a picture of one of the poster campaigns that Jake from Tooth and Nail did with Peter about marriage equality #loveislove

Snowdrops in Spring

by Lily

I like this poster

You can see more of Elise's illustrations here 
You can download her really cool book here too

My house

I made this in art class out of clay, then I glazed it. You can put things inside and it is also a tealight holder.