Lorraine McKay bride and groom workshop

You may remember that some time ago I made a model of a boy with a dog [you can see the post here], which was based on a tutorial by Lorraine McKay of Extra Icing! Well, last weekend I was lucky enough to attend a course taught by Lorraine herself! The topic; a bride and groom cake topper fully handmade from modelling paste.

The two day workshop was held in a village north of Nottingham which was quite handy as it was only an hours drive away, and luckily it was very easy to find. Another big plus for me was that, aside from bringing a drum and dummy cake covered in sugarpaste, all of the materials were provided for and were included within the course fee.

                    

I arrived on the Saturday morning, along with the 12 other students, and sat down ready to start when I noticed that everyone else had covered their dummy in white sugarpaste; I was the odd one out with my dusky pink choice. Not that it mattered, I just felt a bit silly for the first 10 mins or so! :)

Lorraine's set up was really good. She had a video recorder hooked up to a projector and screen so that we could see what she was demonstrating from our seats. For the more detailed, small or tricky parts, we would watch up close and then she'd repeat on the big screen whilst we were working. If anyone had any questions, we could ask away.

     

I found the first day to be really tiring. It was very much Go! Go! Go! but we did get a lot done. The grooms legs, torso, waistcoat and jacket and one arm and hand were complete along with the brides legs, torso, dress [including bust detail], neck and arms.

     

The second day was all about the heads and these took up most of the day. We made the two heads and styled the hair, the brides sleeves, necklace and bouquet of flowers and the grooms missing arm, feet, collar and tie. The final touch was to paint the brides necklace and the grooms wedding ring.

     

Overall, I'm really pleased with the bride and groom that I made. There are a few bits which I would have taken more time over, or practiced a bit more if there were time. For example, the facial expressions leave a lot to be desired. They are supposed to look happy not scared!! :) Also, we used gold dust mixed with alcohol to paint the ring and necklace, however by the time I got round to doing it, the alcohol had evaporated and I dropped gold dust over the grooms' knee. Oooops! :( And the fluff. I always manage to get dust and fluff in my work when I'm in a classroom environment. Everything looks a bit hairy!

So, after an incredibly exhausting, but much fun weekend, work was a real struggle on Monday morning - not helped by the fact that I forgot to set my alarm ;)

Lorraine teaches classes around the globe and also sells brilliant tutorials through her website. I can't speak highly enough of either form of learning, as I have done both. Whilst I think that the tutorials are clear enough to get excellent results, you can't beat face to face teaching in my opinion. You get to ask questions and speak with like minded people. I found her teaching style to be really relaxed and fun. She was able to keep a steady pace that everyone kept up with, with very few questions or calls for help being asked along the way.

And, most importantly, everyone went home with a finished project that they could be proud of! :)