A week of instructor's courses with Yukiko Miyai

It's been a hectic week of intensive training with our head instructor, Yukiko Miyai of the DECO Clay Craft Academy. It's always nice to see her since I don't make it to Oahu at all. The creativity and new techniques are always fun to learn even though every day is intense and we have lots of homework. Thankfully my instructor/student, Myrna of Petal Chic and I kept each other motivated to finish our homework every night.

These are some of the projects we worked on. I have one more project to finish before I get signed off on the 3 series we learned this week. I can't wait to show you the last project as it's stunning.

This particular project was called Flower Dolls. We learned how to make these cute little dolls with lovely miniature flowers coming out from vines from hats and leaves on their heads. Very cute and whimsical. Lots of creative ideas flowed as to other things we can do with the techniques we learned.

This is a beautiful magnolia branch project using what's called "Garden Clay". I've been with DECO for almost 10 years and this is the first time I've used it. AWESOME stuff! Allows you to make trees and figurines and gives great texture. They also introduced using magic water (acrylic water), which is very cool. I've always been too nervous to work with it, but it's very nice! Can't wait to try other things with it!

This is another project using the "Garden Clay". Believe it or not the entire tree is using the CLAYCRAFT by DECO and Garden Clay mixed together to form this beautiful bonsai like tree. Myrna and I envisioned a Halloween tree before we placed our plum blossoms on it.

The above arrangement was involving long stem flowers. While I learned irises when I first started, Yukiko has taken the time to perfect the technique and it's much more realistic than the way we did it before.

We had also learned water lilies a long time ago, but again, Yukiko has been really focusing on more advanced techniques. Love the use of the magic water and the center fringe has much improved since the last time we learned it. I think that's what I love most about DECO, you can always find new ways to improve on your techniques to make the flowers look even more realistic!

One last bouquet arrangement to follow in a few days. It has shrub roses, phaleanopsis orchids and lilacs. Stay tuned...