This was my first ever attempt at creating anything out of chocolate which wasn't delicious. So I came to the conclusion that it is more of an artwork where the chocolate is the medium. There, an easy term for chocolate showpieces. Although the showpieces are far from easy themselves. First you have to know how to use the chocolate and the limits of what chocolate can do, then create a structure that can actually hold its own weight. Once these time consuming steps are done you better make sure that the design fits the theme and looks like a stand out piece. Exhausting is all I can describe it as for my first time. So many mistakes were made and so many things broke and almost sent me running off crying. There may have been a couple of days I started talking to the chocolate like it was almost my enemy and discussed how we had to work together just these next few days. Like an agreement, 'I'll start liking you again if you just don't break or melt this one time!' I found myself saying, but either way I still spent up to 14 hours straight working on this thing some days.
The week before the showpiece was due I had almost finished making all the pieces and had 1 day available to work on it more, the day before the competition. So stressful. So what did I decide to do? Enjoy my Easter, go to family gatherings and get drunk and eat my weight in food and chocolate. Sensible right? I actually think it was the best decision I have made. I enjoyed it a lot more then stressing over chocolate and contemplating our moves together like a relationship. I would be safe to say that I spent about 6 hours accumulated over the preparation time just staring at the chocolate with a coffee cup in hand. Asking it telepathic questions like 'Why do you have to do this to me?" or "Where did we go wrong?" then there was the inspirational statements like "Come on chocolate I know we can do this together!"
Anyway moving along, the competition had a theme which was Steampunk. Pretty cool theme I think because the options are endless. Which is also bad as well. From my first designs to the finished product you couldn't even tell that the same person designed them. Most of my time was spent trying to make my first design work, well this was a waste of time so I just redesigned the entire piece two weeks before the competition. That could have been the reason for stress levels. Oh and trying to finish chocolate orders for my business too, they were the easy part though.
I luckily was given the opportunity to use dental Alginate, a product used by dentists to take a mould of your teeth. This stuff is so awesome, you mix it with water, let it set slightly, add in whatever you want to mould. I used objects like taps, screws and a little bird. Then add another layer on top and set again. There you have a mould for your chocolate pieces. This part was actually really fun to do.
So it gets to the day of the competition and I get everything loaded into the car and drive over to Tafe for the competition. There is one other competitor there and I was an hour and a half early. I set up my items and so does she. The competition doesn't start till 9am. I wait around and get a coffee. 9am comes along and no other competitors have showed up yet. This makes me even more stressed out because I just assume everyone else is so fast and amazing and only needs 30 minutes to put it all together. We are given four hours to complete the sculpture. The first hour I shake and sweat from being so nervous, and in my favour chef jackets aren't the coolest pieces of clothing out there.
Finally I finish the piece and clean down after 3 hours of construction. Once finished I am a stinky, hungry, happy young lady. I couldn't have asked for a better result. Nothing broke. All that preying to the chocolate angels wore off!
On the day they told us who came first, second and third. I didn't get any of these places but I was still really happy with what I achieved. Some part of me can't even comprehend that I actually built it myself.
A couple of days ago I got an email that thanked us for competing and gave us back a combined score from the three judges. I glanced over it and saw with astonishment that I placed 4th overall, missing out on third place by 4 points. This was out of 18 people. I am definitely over the moon with what I achieved on the day.
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