What a lovely term!
We made so much over the four classes.
Such varied subjects and so much to get your teeth into.
Thank you so much for your enthusiasm and your company through the term.
So lets have a look at what we made
This cake to the left was created in the final session for Tuesday evening. Can you believe this was all done in one evening! Students worked on their individual desserts while I demonstrated this cake, sculpting the cake, ganaching, then adding the Agar Agar and decorations to the island as well as making another batch of Agar Agar during the session.
Monday morning Classes
The ladies had a wish list.
They wanted to create tropical flowers from air drying clay. This means that they can keep their flowers forever, but the techniques can easily be transferred to sugar for their future cakes. We created a stem of Gladioli, two birds of paradise, three anthurium as well as a little bonus of bourganvilleia flowers and leaves.
Next they created a cute bride and groom figure.
Finally we practised sharp edges on cake dummies and decorated our tiered design with a peacock. Yes it was a very busy term, but we may have snuck an extra week in there ;)
Monday Evening
We went tropical here too. The students requested to learn how to wire together different sprays and arrangements with their flowers.
So for this reason, we used the air drying clay (cold porcelain) for our flowers here. We spent five weeks making Hibiscus and Jasmine and their foliage, stems of eucalyptus and also a bonus of twisted willow. Then we spent three weeks learning different arrangements. I actually did 12 arrangements during those weeks are just a few of them.
We went from traditional, to modern including the use of wires, jewellery and artificial bear grass and even creating our own hoop.
Tuesday Evening
This was such a varied class.
First we spent a couple of weeks practising royal icing decorated cookies. I confess to eating mine.
Next we made a sugar open rose and leaves with individual wired petals as well as a more traditional wired rose. Next we learnt how to cover a cake with sharp edges sugarpaste, how to cover a board and I also demonstrated how to use beadmakers with modelling paste made from CMC and our sugarpaste. (No picture, but you can see a sharp edged cake in the monday morning section).
We spent the last couple of weeks playing with gelatine. I used Agar Agar and demonstrated how to make that a couple of times during the class, as well as injecting the flowers into individual desserts before finishing the term with an Island cake.
Wednesday morning
We started the term making flowers using air drying clay. We made a pansy plant, Snowdrops and then made stems of lavender. We also made tulips (I will add the pic to this blog so that you can see). We finished the term with an animal a week. The little turtle was made using the armature method for the turtle in my book, then we made the little pup without an armature. Finishing off with the horse with a very simple armature. All three were modelled with saracino and painted from white.
April Summer Term 2021
Two of the sessions have chosen their subjects and will be available to book this week. We will be starting back the week commencing the 12th of April and will have an eight week term (not including holidays/Cake international/half term) and ending on the week commencing 21st June. Each class is £80 for the term. The ingredient and equipment list will be published this week
Monday morning 10am-12pm.
We will be making lovely flowers this term with an emphasis on dusting. Lots of people enjoy making the flowers but find the dusting tricky, so we have left time to make sure we can spend time on exactly that. We will work again with air drying clay (cold porcelain), but you are welcome to use sugar florist paste if you wish.
We will be making a gorgeous cottage garden posy consisting of
Bleeding heart - Dicentra - I will be making a cutter for students to use, which will be included in the cost of the course.
Miss Jekyll (also known as love in the mist or nigella damascena)
Agapanthus - lots of individual florets to make here, but you can always just use the individual florets if you wish.
Oxalis leaves and pulled flowers.
Monday Evening 7-9pm.
More flowers here. Flower making can be really relaxing. Whether you are new to flowers or not, it is all about breaking down techniques and the air drying clay makes it a lot easier to learn as there are less breakages. But again, you could use sugar if you wish.
We will be making
Dahlia and leaves
Fuschia and leaves
Freesias
Lily of the valley
We will also be wiring them together too.
Tuesday Evening 7-9pm
We will have a lovely mix of subjects. We will be making
A handbag sculpted cake
a modelled figure
A wafer paper dahlia
Visit the new April weekly classes page to see inspiration images and to book.
Wednesday morning 10am-12pm
There is a flower wishlist again, but we have yet to decide on varieties, so let me know your requests if you would like to join us. dragonsanddaffodils@gmail.com
So how do you find the pages on the website?
Well here is a snip of the home page. I have changed the blackberries link to the april page (scroll down to the other blackberry plant for the online weekly classes page)
There is an enrol button on the april weekly class page too to make it easy for you.
Additional Sessions.
I had planned to do this in the spring term, but it just didn't happen, so we will start now.
I will be running live demonstrations in private facebook groups. You will have indefinite access to the groups and their recordings.
The sessions will be approximately 2 1/2 hours long and either in single sessions or in multiples.
When you then make your piece after watching the demonstration, you are welcome to ask your questions in the group.
The first subject will be based on a mythical creature.
I created Mr Tumnus a few years ago, and it will be a new fawn in a new setting, but lets have a peek at Mr Tumnus.
You will learn how to create a wired armature, add the paste to the armature both to create smooth skintone and fur textures. There will be a detailed face and hands and colouring the piece to finish.
We won't be making Mr Tumnus, but it gives you an idea of the level of detail we will be working to.
There won't be time to work along with me, but you can play and pause the recording after the session and take as long as you wish to create your faun. And don't be afraid to create your own personality!
Registration now open!
Here is a snip of the home page to show you how to find the page.
About the weekly classes
All classes are small. I like to have a maximum of 8-9 when we are in the school, so that size also works well for zoom. I have demonstrated to the maximum zoom number, and honestly, that wouldn't work for classes, so small is best.
The classes will be held via zoom and then the recordings will be uploaded to a private facebook group. I found that often we need to share pictures, and a private facebook group means that you can easily pop in a message or a picture or query into the group. I can also share information easily with you and you will have indefinite access to the group and its content. The zoom link will be pinned in the announcements in the private facebook group too and they will be in "my bookings" in the members section of the website.
When registration closes for the classes, the day before the first day of term for each class, nobody else will be able to join. Nor will you be able to join previous classes that have been held online, although you can request the edit of a recording.
So if you have any queries about the classes, please do get in touch dragonsanddaffodils@gmail.com
Video Edit Requests.
When I teach via zoom, the only thing recorded is the view of my hands, so I delete the original audio, edit video down to remove large gaps and record fresh audio. So there is no chatter and those attending the original class have their privacy protected and do not appear in the video at all.
I have done this for the steampunk class, the bunny, the lisianthus, betsy and ben etc.
Dates for your diary. - Weekly Classes Registration closing dates:
Monday classes registration closes 11th April
Tuesday class registration closes 12th April
Wednesday class registration closes 13th April
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