Lately I'm being asked to do decorative cakes, YIKES... can anyone please help?
Sculpting is my strong point, but all the delicate, beautiful techniques elude me. I think I've taken myself as far as I can go with just reading, and I have a mountain of books. I'm a visual learner, and there are no classes around here. So I'm gravitating towards the videos I've heard so much about.
I'm looking to really fine tune my piping and flower skills, beyond the Wilton courses.

I know that Edna, Aine2 and others have made videos...
Thanks for reading. Where to begin???

Scot Clark Wooley has a collection of videos, Nicolas Lodge too. Piping skills can't be taught, they need to be practice and practice until you get them. So I would say in those, keep trying and trying until you loose the fear of doing them, then after you get control of your bag, you can actually move on to learn to do different styles of piping.
Edna

I agree with Edna, confidence is the key to good piping. Gaining confidence can only come from practice. I practice on cuppies, the backs of pans, on 'just for us' cakes, don't be afraid to just right in

Piping really does need to be practiced over and over to get a really good feel for it. When I worked for the bakery and the chocolate shop, I was the one who usually got asked to do the writing, because I'm really good at writing with a piping bag. I got that way by practicing on sugar cubes. I can fit "It's A Boy" on a sugar cube, from when I made some for people celebrating a new grandson.

Deanna

P.S. - Michele Foster (Sugarflowers here on CC) has a gumpaste flowers video available, too, at www.lickthespoonproductions.com

Thank you for responding. Tonight I tried holding a small amount of icing in a tiny cone and had more control, almost like a pencil. I'll start practicing and maybe trying smaller parchment cones (my hands are tiny) and the full cones are so cumbersome for me.

Thanks again for taking the time to answer.