How can I describe my experience as international guest artist at Cake Interantional Birmingham, spring edition? It is a very complicated thing. Just now I am an amalgam of feelings and sensations that is not completely clear. I cannot transmit how honored I felt on having received Melanie’s invitation in December during my stay to teach in Mexico. The happiness that I felt on having seen that someone was estimating my work up to the point of granting such an honor to me. And the authentic happiness that one can feel when it happens slightly unexpectedly, something that had not not even imagined that it might happen.

I spent the following months planning and preparing carefully my trip. Programming my demonstrations. Daydreaming with how nice was going to be to share this weekend with all my sweet friends. And designing something adapted to be done during my demonstrations.

“Spring awakening” was my design for this edition that was coinciding with the spring beginning. A sculpture in plastic chocolate, fondant and wafer of approximately 130 centimeters of finished height that was showing a spring allegory stretching lazy while the snow was transforming in flowers and everything was flooded with color. I had prepared the whole body and the base of the figure to finish it in my demonstrations with the exception of the face and the hair, the hands and feet and part of the clothes. As you can see the final result has not too much similarity with the first project because of the transport issues.

I contracted a express service of a delivery company like I had done in previous occasions entrusted from that it would come without problem for which I had paid enough in order that my package was coming in time. Packlink is the company to which I paid for delivering my package to Birmingham. I received the first e-mail of which my package had not been submitted just before taking the plane in the airport of Barcelona and almost I lose it because of the stressed I became, I was not finding the boarding gate, I couldn’t see it of pure stress. They did not find the Hilton for which it was lacking a letter to the street in spite of the fact that the hotel has own ZIP code. When I corrected the adress (Thursday morning) and they said to me that the following day it would come the package, it did not arrive.

I came to the fair and commented on the whole problem to Melanie. She put all his determination in materials and tools obtaining myself removing sky and land. I am grateful for Karen Davies, Karen Keeney, Zoe Fox, Rhianydd Web, Calli Hopper and to all those who gave me material. Obviously I hadn’t enough material of my sponsor RENSHAW as which alone it had in the fair the little that he needed to finish the piece, not the sufficient thing to do the work from zero. So I had to take a few dummies and prepare everything from zero with what I could obtain that obviously warning in the last moment I could not do myself with correct materials for the structure, etc. In less than two hours I had to set up my cake for my demonstration of painting on cake and prepare the base of figure for the demonstration of facial modelling. Obviously I did it to the career and without the best conditions of work for what the results are not the best, so partly I felt very ashamed. I done my demonstrations not with the best of the moods but I tried to solve, I ask the assistants for excuses. On having come to the hotel I had another e-mail of the company of transport that a person of contact was asking myself in the hotel. The hotel was warned of calling if they knew something, the person of contact was I who for it was in the hotel. On having seen the location of my package in his page I discovered that the package had never got out of London, there was no the most minimal effort for your part in delivering the sending in spite of the fact that I explained the situation to them and asked them to deliver it. So I assumed that it would not come and tried to sleep what I could in spite of the nerves and the sensation of impotence. I continued with my piece at the other demonstrations of 45 minutes of shaped of hands and feet, And hairstyling and dress. Continuing it in my working space in the way of the fair up to finishing the piece while he was chatting inspired with the whole people who was coming to show me his admiration and support. It toke me about 16 hours from the beginning to the end.

The delivery company now wants to receive from me the double of money for returning my package to me with the sculpture that I prepared or I will not be able to recover it …. So not very well as I will solve it.

What I know is that, despite everything the negative thing, the amiability and the help given by the people of the sweet world is inestimable. That I have not done my better work but it is the best result that I could have achieved in these adverse circumstances. Always I will have a great fondness to this piece for which that is the fruit of the effort and of the love that great people feel for the cake artisry. Probably as final result the better thing that I have extracted of my stay in Cake International is to find the support and the kindness of the persons, and to feel the beautiful thing that is to know that when you fall down there will be hands that they help you raise. Thanks to all