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...

Where have I been lately? - C3 Clay Flower Workshops

My all-time favorite -peonies. I love the new techniques that we learned. They make the peonies look so much more realistic!

You all have probably been wondering why my blog posts have been so few and far between. I've been in taking intensive DECO Clay Craft Academy C3 Instructor workshop classes all last week. I'm thankful that my friend and student now turned instructor, Myrna of Petal Chic was staying with me so that we could encourage each other all those late nights of doing homework to be able to complete the next day's worth of projects. Let me tell you, Commuting an hour and a half each day, 5 hours of clay class with only 20 minutes to break for lunch and then working from 8 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. every night was brutal. I think we were starting to wonder if making flowers was fun anymore. LOL. Now I realize a little how intense it must be for my students who come for accelerated classes. Granted the homework level cannot compare to what we pumped out in 5 short days. I am grateful for the fact that I can do things very quickly after years of experience. That's probably the only reason why I was able to keep up. We didn't get a chance to finish everything, but it was nice to see my student instructors there and the other instructors I've come to know over the years.

Kazuko Miyai - helping the instructors paint the faces on their pear project.

Yukiko and Kazuko have really outdone themselves with the new C3 Instructor's course. Ranunculus and viburnum flower girl purse design - always amazed at Yukiko and Kazuko's creativity!

Very complex, detailed and over the top beautiful things to learn. I haven't taken classes in 2 years so a lot has changed even for me and I thoroughly enjoyed all the new developments that have transpired since then.These are absolutely amazing - large form hydrangeas with the "blaumeise" style hydrangeas
with the little buds in the center with vines made out of clay!

We even made birds and baskets out of clay! These were super fun and so creative.

Here are some photos of the workshops and the projects I completed. There is still more that I have to complete, but I only have 3 more things to work on and then I will have completed the first 4 courses. The next 6 won't take place until a year from now, but I'm so excited to start them when they are developed and ready to be taught. I'm always amazed at what Yukiko and Kazuko Miyai create out of clay. The possibilities are TRULY endless!

Only those students who become certified instructors are allowed to take these wonderful classes, but I have to say, I am so honored that Yukiko and her mother traveled from Hawaii and Japan to teach us for a week. They are extremely busy and we certainly appreciated them taking the time to teach us all these wonderful projects to share with new instructors moving forward. I'm also very proud of my instructors who I taught because they worked very hard to keep up and I think they all did a fabulous job.