It’s hard to believe that a year has passed since I started my new teaching venture and established The Botanical Cake Studio! A whole year may have passed but it certainly been a strange one…
Where it all started…
At the end of January 2020, I started The Botanical Cake Studio Creatives, my free Facebook group. A place for fellow sugar artists of all levels to come together, chat and learn, share experiences and ask for advice. Never in a million years would I have imagined that the world was about to be placed into lockdown and that our lives would suddenly be very different. This has been a blessing in many ways. The absence of weddings gave me more time to dedicate to my Facebook group and growing my little flower community.
Free tutorials
Over the first lockdown, I created lots of free mini tutorials for the group. However, with the growth of The Botanical Cake Studio Creatives, these tutorials became easily lost in the Facebook group format. So I have now moved them over to The Botanical Cake Studio YouTube channel instead. I’ve been really overwhelmed by the growth of both the group and YouTube channel. Thanks so much to all those who have supported me over the past year. Your positive feedback makes all of the hard work so worthwhile! I will be continuing to add more free tutorials to the YouTube channel as and when I can. So make sure you are subscribed to keep up-to-date with all of the latest uploads.
Online classes launch!
July saw the launch of The Botanical Cake Studio Online School and the first class: “Classic Rose”. This is the perfect class for beginners as I teach you all of the basics in great detail. I guide you through every stage of the process from creating your own flower paste, rolling it out and thinning to achieve ultra-thin lifelike petals. How to create lightweight centres, shaping your rose and dusting with natural colour palettes. Finally, creating accompanying foliage and assembling.
Every step has its own easy to follow video and I also provide accompanying cheat sheets with petal count guides. These will jog your memory and help speed up the production process. If you have been making flowers for a while but are struggling to achieve a lifelike finish to your roses, then this is a great class for you too and will elevate your sugar flowers to the next level!
David Austin and Dahlia
Subsequently, I have also launched two further classes in The Botanical Cake Studio Online School, the David Austin Rose and the Dahlia. These stay true to my teaching style with all videos taken at a slow and calm pace to allow you plenty of time to learn. I also have accompanying Facebook support groups for all of the classes. So if you are ever unsure, I am always available to ask for help. I can even pop into the group and do you a live demo if there is anything you are particularly struggling with. The feedback from my students so far has been amazing and I am really enjoying seeing all of the creations. I can’t wait to teach more of you too!
More on the blog…
There have been lots of useful conversation topics in the group over the past year and I am now going to start transferring some of this info into informative blog posts for my group members and students to reference. A lot of the topics in the group tend to get lost in the group format (just like the videos). So the blog will now be a useful place to reference them. Keep your eye out for upcoming posts on dealing with humidity, flower arranging for cakes and also some inspirational posts on specific flowers.
The Botanical Cake Studio on Pinterest
Talking of which, I have recently created a Pinterest page for The Botanical Cake Studio which will serve as inspiration for the tutorials and classes. Studying pictures of flowers is such a useful way to improve your sugar flowers and so I hope you will find the ready-made Pinterest boards a useful resource too. I have already created them for the online school classes and am gradually adding more for the YouTube tutorials as well as upcoming classes such as magnolia, anthurium and phlox.
Another new creation!
During this past year, I have also grown and given birth to another small human! Naturally she has been keeping me very busy since her arrival. However she is due to start nursery in June which will allow me a couple of days a week (distraction free!) to work on more classes and free tutorials for you. I am also hoping to get back to weddings which are looking more hopeful this year.
Thanks again for all of your support this year. The group has been the greatest distraction for me throughout this difficult year. I hope it has been an enjoyable place for you to escape to as well. All of the links to the various channels can be found below. I will be back with another blog post for you very soon!
Explore The Botanical Cake Studio Online School – https://the-botanical-cake-studio.teachable.com/
Free tutorials on The Botanical Cake Studio YouTube Channel – https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBotanicalCakeStudio
Find inspiration with The Botanical Cake Studio on Pinterest – https://www.pinterest.co.uk/thebotanicalcakestudio/_saved/
Inspiration and reels tutorials on The Botanical Cake Studio on instagram – https://www.instagram.com/thebotanicalcakestudio/
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