I have not been at this very long, and for a little while now I have been getting more and more discouraged. I am a wilton Instructor, and that side has been rewarding, but when I go to make cakes personally, I feel I am making no improvements. I thought I would be better by now. What do you do to get motivated again? I hope I put this in the right forum. Any feedback would be great. Thank you.....

I take "cake breaks". I've been decorating for 3 years, but I take a hiatus every 6 months until I get bit by the decorating bug again. I think when you stay away for a bit it helps you appreciate it again. JMHO

Red wine.

One thing I like to do is to learn a new technique. It keeps things interesting for me. Is there an ICES DOS anywhere near where you are? (they usually have classes 2x a year and demos - a fun weekend) I always like the challenge of learning something new -and the feeling of accomplishment when I have nailed it! It may be that you are just bored with it - spice it up some!

I am still excited about doing cakes, and have ideas and designs in my head, but, they just dont come out the way I want them too, I want them to look at least like im making progress, each cake should be better than the last at least in technique anyways. I used to get comments about every cake i posted and now im lucky if anyone looks, and the same thing happens when I show ppl my cake photos in my Cake book, so now im starting the think maybe im not very good at this or maybe this is the best im gonna get. What should I do, it frustrating to look at something and think youve done well, and then no one is on that same page.

Your cakes are fantastic! The sheer volume of cakes on here is the only reason nobody is looking. Chin up and keep cakin'!

Challenge yourself!! Pick a Ron Ben Israel cake or a Scott Woolley cake and recreate it! Believe me, you'll learn more than you ever thought possible doing that! (Oh and Angela's idea won't hurt either!)

TY! to all who replied, it really does mean alot!!! Do I just go to his website or is there books at amazon or something?

To keep yourself interested, try and keep learning. New techniques are always coming out and it's not only a good thing for you as a teacher, but it will keep you motivated.
Edna

The wine might help too!..lol

Look in the CC galleries. Look on the internet. I just mentioned two of thousands who are very capable decorators.

I always pick new things that I want to learn. Sometimes it's a new gumpaste flower, other times it is something wild out of my imagination. Stretch into things that you aren't SURE you can do. That's how I improve...trying new things that I thought I wouldn't ever be able to do.
My recent "pet projects" were airbrushing (love now!) and just recently started trying to figure out the whole "cricut thing". Push yourself beyond what you always do. Another thing I do is google searches for totally cool cakes ~ then I try to recreate certain elements that I like.

Have Fun! And if you need a break...take a break. No harm in that!