Right… This is the last entry from my old blog before it crashed and burned… my fear is that this entry – or the pictures – caused the crisis… so I am very VERY anxious! And hungry, but that’s by the by…
3.9.09
I love these courses – I always learn something new. This weekend we had four lovely people on our course and we had a real laugh. Now one of these – Shirley – is the most incredibly talented artist. She told me all about the cake decorations and sugar craft that she does – and it is truly amazing. Have a look at this – all made from sugar!

Sugar craft flowers created by Shirley, a Smoky Jo's graduate!
Can you believe your eyes? Anyway not only can Shirley create these wonderful flowers – she is also a great artist and when we were talking about all the things you can use smoke for – Shirley came up with using it for painting! And to illustrate this she sent me a photo of one of her smoke paintings.

A picture created by etching in the carbon left by a smoking candle
Isn”t it great? Apparently you smoke the plate with the smoke from a candle – turning the plate upside down and making the patterns you want on the plate and then you use various objects like a paint brush, sponge, knife etc to etch your painting into the smoke. Finally you spray it quickly with a quick drying varnish. Amazing! Well done Shirley – and thank you for sharing this with us. Oh yes – and incidently Shirley caught the first fish this weekend. To see lots more photos of her fish and this course have a look “Photos of people enjoying a food smoking course” – Shirley’s there aboutathird of the way down the page.