This month, we begin the first in our series of Cookier Closeups focused on the oh-so-talented presenters at CookieCon. Over the next few weeks leading up to CookieCon, and possibly some to follow, I aim to interview all seven of these lovely ladies! (One can hope and dream, right?!)
While I first encountered Chapix Cookies’ hallmark style (pleasingly poofy and always smile-inducing) in a Fancy Flours’ contest where her Christmas ornament cookies (below) were entered, Myriam, aka Myri, has long been a cookie frontrunner on Flickr. (Just take a gander at the 250-plus incredible cookies that she’s posted there!)
And while that virtual encounter was certainly memorable, it was even better to meet Myri and her work in person, which I had the good fortune of doing back in 2012 at the first-ever CookieCon. (Yeah, that's us to the left!)
It didn’t take long to realize that Myri is as sweet and charming as her delightful works of art – or that her attention to detail is unparalleled. One glance at her CookieCon Sugar Show entry (below), and I was floored! Imagine fitting all that detail on a 1 1/2-inch Santa cookie?! I know, it’s hard!
Considering our propitious meeting at the first CookieCon, I thought it only fitting that Myri be the first cookier in our CookieCon series! That said, read on to get to know her better, and to learn more about how she’s preparing for CookieCon.
JMU: Hi, Myri. I’m really excited to see you presenting at CookieCon this year. You have such a distinctive style, from which so many can learn. Before we launch into CookieCon questions, there’s so much more that I want to ask about you and your work. Ready?
MS: Hi, Julia! Thank you so much for inviting me to be here with you and your great community Cookie Connection. I am so excited!
JMU: Your work shows such finesse and control. The fine lines that you achieve in the faces of your character cookies are especially unbelievable. It looks like you’ve been decorating for eons, but I understand that you only started in 2008! Can you tell our readers how you first got interested in cookie decorating versus cake or some other type of decorating?
MS: Thank you so much! Coming from an artist like you, I feel very honored! To be honest, I never planned to start with one thing or the other - in fact, with anything related (to sweets decorating). I am a graphic designer by profession. In my youth, I baked once with friends to raise money for a cause. After university, where I studied graphic design for four years, I started learning to cook through books and magazines. I even bought a recipe book from NestlÉ to make the occasional dessert, but nothing more.
I come from a family that likes crafts. My mother used to make flowers with something similar to clay. My sisters and I did all kinds of decorations for home and holidays. That I started making cookies was by chance. Back in 2007, I saw a decorated cookie for the first time. I had no idea that they existed, but after seeing it, I wanted to make some for my daughter's next birthday (although I didn't make them until one year later). Maybe if I had seen a cake, I would have started there, but instead I saw cookies.
I've made cakes and cupcakes, but in my pursuit of well-made cookies (I am a bit of a perfectionist), I was bitten by the cookie decorating bug and I found myself trying so hard to create my own stuff. I lacked the basics, so it was not an easy journey for me. I love when I have the chance to make cakes and cupcakes, and I would like to practice them more, but I feel a special affection for the area in which I started. For me, cookies are very friendly. You don’t need to worry too much if they are crunchy or not (the worst that can happen is they get moist)! And if you mess up, you can start all over again.
JMU: You said that cultivating your cookie decorating skills was not an easy journey, but you obviously did it - and with exceptional results. So how did you do it? Did you go to decorating classes, rely on books or online tutorials, or do other things?
MS: I started with no expectation, just the hope to make cookies for my little daughter Andy (Chapix). I took a basic four-hour class to start. When I tried for the first time by myself, nothing seemed to work out well. I had a lot of doubts. I was totally unaware of this world, as mine was graphic design. I knew nothing about books or famous people within the baking industry, and at that time, there wasn't much information on the Internet, at least not in Spanish, my native language. So trial and error were my teachers - in fact, many hours of trial and error.
Gradually I acquired skills with royal icing, but my problem was still with cookie recipes. My cookies turned out terribly deformed, and I didn’t know why. One day, by chance, a photo of a cake made by Marlyn Birmingham (Montreal Confections) caught my attention, and I found a community on Flickr where the normal behavior was to share what everyone did. That is how I met a group of enthusiastic women who were helping each other. A couple of them sent me to some web pages where I could find cookie recipes to experiment with.
Curiously, one day my husband was helping me make a lot of cookie dough, and a mistake he made helped me get THE recipe! That night, before baking the cookies, I was almost ready to kill him because I thought they would turn out even worse, but no, they were the most beautiful cookies I had ever gotten after one and a half years of attempts. Of course, I kissed him! It’s funny how sometimes you find the right things! [EDITOR'S NOTE: I'm pretty sure she's referring to both cookies and husband! 
]
Over time, it became habit to share with those ladies what I was designing for my clients and friends, and we gradually became friends. Fortunately for new cookie decorators, many of these women are now very influential in expanding the art of cookie decorating through social media, especially blogs. They all are very talented ladies whom I feel fortunate to have known at the time, and they do a great job helping future cookier generations.
JMU: So, after studying graphic design for four years, you eventually turned to cookies as a business. Please tell us more about that business evolution and how your graphic design background has influenced your cookie business.
MS: As a child, I was always very inclined toward creating. When I had to choose a career, there was no doubt that (creating) was the choice for me. But I never imagined that cookies would change the course of my life. For me, cookie decorating was an alternate activity that I started when I was taking a break from my graphic design career to spend time with my little daughter - and I didn’t turn back. Having this previous study definitely influences my work. Fortunately, graphic design is a very noble career; it brings one closer to everything related to the arts and crafts, including baking. Composition, color theory, and art are useful topics in any field, including cookie decorating.
But I don't think it's mandatory to have design as a background. I have seen many artists who also have natural talent and make beautiful things with their own sensibility, even if they have studied a career astronomically removed from art and design.
People say there is no better career than the one that makes you happy. Graphic design made me happy and gave me a lot of satisfaction at the time when I was focused on it, and now that it’s a branch, too. I think it's just a matter of knowing what you want to do (again, for me, it was creating) and working hard to be special at it.
JMU: Is your cookie business a full-time occupation for you? And what does it entail – baking, teaching, or some combination of these things? How much time (in a given week or month) do you typically spend on each of these cookie activities?
MS: Life has led me to make cookies a full-time job, and now I can’t stop because they have become my way of living. But at the moment, I try to keep it manageable. My cookie business is currently focused on teaching because it allows me to have time to create the things I want while I spend time with my husband and daughters. I have two little girls (Andy and Lili) who need me, and I want to be there for them.
Now that my youngest (Lili, now three years old) has started school, I try to complete most of my activities in the morning when both girls are in school. I try to be as productive as possible by doing what is highest priority at the time, be it baking, decorating, answering emails, doing social media, organizing new classes, or taking photos. But when that is not enough, I have to work overtime, including evenings and weekends sometimes, especially when I teach.
My husband has started to help me, when things get beyond me. He is such a great person who has always supported me a lot. He is in charge of my children when I cannot do it, especially when I travel. But every day I try to improve my time management. Sometimes it's not easy, but family is very important to me.
JMU: What has been the biggest challenge you have encountered in starting up your cookie business? And how did you overcome it?
MS: I have had several, and every single challenge has been the most important at its moment. But one of the firsts was starting to teach. I was not a person who liked to speak in public. I was shy (and still am sometimes) and ended up hoarse if I talked too much. People wanted to learn from me, so that gave me the motivation to find a way to convey to others what I could do. My mind knew how to do it, my hands helped, but I had no idea how to teach, because I never thought about the possibility of it.
So I started by observing myself to better understand how I worked and to translate my work in the simplest way possible for listeners. I ended up designing my own method. I worked hard - it is the only way. Believing in myself helped, and having contact with people made me feel increasingly secure, and teaching easier. We all have challenges when we face something new. It is essential to believe we can overcome those challenges.
JMU: I know your work was featured in 2010 in the popular book, 1,000 Ideas for Decorating Cupcakes, Cookies & Cake (Quarry Books). Was this your crowning cookie moment, or is there another cookie “high” for you that makes you most proud?
MS: I have a special deep feeling about that book. It was a wonderful surprise and opportunity that came via email the night of December 31, 2009, and it opened the world’s doors to me. I am very grateful to Gina Brown (the editor who asked me to participate), because thanks to her and that publication, people around the world discovered my work and I began receiving unexpected offers to teach classes outside my country. I have had many wonderful moments as a result, like the first time I addressed a group of people who knew my work in Spain. It was a magical moment, because I didn’t expect its potential.
But as grateful as I am for the book, I don’t think it's my crowning cookie moment - there were only pictures of my work with no explanation about how to do it. If my crowning cookie moment ever happens (not sure yet what it might be), I hope it can be the result of great effort on my part, and is rewarded with that feeling of living that moment.
JMU: So let's talk about teaching a bit more. Where do you teach classes – i.e., what country or countries? primarily in your home or in another venue?
MS: I started teaching in 2011 in Mexico. One day a lady came to my Facebook page and asked me for classes. It took her a couple of months to convince me (shyness was the reason for me). But she and her family made the experience so enjoyable that I posted on Facebook with the sole intention to remember what I did, as kind of a personal triumph. But it was thanks to that little step that I started teaching.
The first time I taught outside of my country was that same year, first in the United States, followed by Spain, Guatemala, Colombia, and recently in Italy. In my country, I teach in a place we rent for the occasion. I teach classes abroad when time permits.
JMU: What tips can you give readers who might want to start teaching cookie decorating classes of their own?
I can suggest a few:
- Experience. In my opinion, good teachers should be experts in their field, because experience gives you the ability to know what you are talking about and to answer any question. Students will notice that, feeling confident about the person they have chosen to teach them. In the end, if your work is good, it will recommend itself.
- Have your own portfolio - and be professional. Before you begin to teach, it is important to have a portfolio of your own work in the field to be taught. A portfolio should show your style and your journey. You should be able to draw designs from it that students would aspire to learn and - above all - to show that you can replicate those designs. Unfortunately, there are people who take a class and, the next day, are offering it to third parties, without having enough experience to teach the techniques they learned the day before. Even worse, they may decide to teach with their teacher’s design. In my opinion, teachers should aspire to be professional in every aspect. It’s normal that if we go to a class, we will learn a technique that will help us develop our own work - that’s the goal. But it's hard to imagine a teacher offering and charging for a class with a design that doesn’t belong to him or her - in my opinion, this is unethical and unprofessional.
- Plan the class. Making a plan definitely helps clarify what is being taught, and improves communication with students, making it easier for them to learn. Practicing the class before getting started is also essential.
- Be enthusiastic, patient, and have fun! Mastering royal icing requires many hours of practice, therefore building our students' confidence by being enthusiastic and patient is important. If it's their first time decorating, they perhaps will not leave the classroom with the most beautiful cookies in the world. But we have to help them get the best out of themselves and not be stressed about it. In the case of advanced students, a teacher's job is to motivate them to do their best and to inspire their own talent through new techniques.
JMU: Pricing is always a big issue here in the cookie community - pricing questions relate not only to cookies, but also to cookie decorating classes. How do you set the prices for your cookie decorating classes? What tips do you have for members to ensure that they set fair prices that still allow them to make a fair profit?
MS: Setting a rate that reflects your knowledge, and everything involved in teaching it, is not always an easy task. But it's definitely important for the price to be worth your while, especially if you are teaching a good, complete, and long class. Price is a function of various factors, such as the class content, class duration, the materials used, the venue (whether you own it or it's rented), who is organizing the class (you or someone else), where it's taught (your hometown or a foreign country), etc. Anyway, the pricing decision is subjective; there is not a single answer that fits everyone. You have to weigh several factors to get your answer. If you're unsure, it can be useful to compare your prices to classes similar to yours.
JMU: Do you have a calendar of classes that you can share with members who might be interested in attending your classes?
MS: After teaching for over two consecutive years, I have decided to take a break to re-evaluate things and design new cookies. I will announce dates for upcoming classes soon, as people ask me a lot about them. But my next confirmed class is CookieCon 2014! So excited! 
JMU: That's the perfect segue into my final CookieCon questions! What, if anything, makes CookieCon a unique teaching environment for you – i.e., size or experience level of audience? something else?
MS: I have taught a little of everything - privately, in schools and in an expo, to people who are experienced in all kinds of baked goods . . . CookieCon is a unique event created exclusively for cookiers, which makes it new and exciting because cookie decorating is my area. We never stop learning - every experience makes us wiser.
JMU: How, if at all, do you plan to adapt your teaching methods to meet the unique features of CookieCon? That is, how are you prepping for CookieCon, and is this prep any different than for any other class you might teach?
MS: Over two years ago, I had my first similar experience, in a meeting with several cookie friends in Knoxville, Tennessee. That was the first time I spoke about the topic that I have been asked to speak about at CookieCon. Thanks to that experience, I have an idea about how to structure the presentation, which will definitely be different than my normal classes, mostly because of the time we have available for it. My classes are usually hands-on workshops that last approximately six to eight hours, during which I talk about several topics related to my work.
CookieCon works differently [EDITOR'S NOTE: less time, larger audience, presentation vs. hands-on format], so teaching methods have to be adapted, without changing the content. Perhaps the biggest difference (and challenge) is that I have considered doing my presentation in English, and I must confess that I am nervous. (I might need a bilingual help! 
) I am very excited to participate along with the other incredibly talented cookie presenters and to help make this event a memorable experience for students.
JMU: You teased us a little bit with what you plan to teach at CookieCon, but you really didn't let too many cookies out of the bag! Can tell us more about the topic of your presentation?
MS: The topic about which I was asked to speak is transfers. I use them a lot in my projects. I will teach how to do them with volume, a characteristic of my work. I hope my class will motivate students to create beautiful things that make them feel more confident about their work and creativity.
JMU: For those readers who can’t make it to CookieCon, what are your best tips for improving their cookie decorating skills?
MS: Fortunately, there are tons of good photos, tutorials, blogs, and videos out there, which are helping a lot of cookie decorators already. So read, watch, observe, practice, be inspired in the world around you, and believe. Have fun doing it and don’t worry too much. Practice definitely makes perfect! [EDITOR'S NOTE: And she's not kidding, as her perfect cookie, below, attests.]
JMU: After CookieCon, what’s next for you and Chapix Cookies in 2014? Do you have any new and exciting cookie projects or events on the horizon?
MS: There are new cookie projects on the horizon that I started even before CookieCon. I have a dream, but I can’t give details yet because there is still much work to do to make it real. Last year I was asked a lot about my cookie cutter designs, which are available only in my classes. I also have a plan to make them available for everyone. And of course, I will continue creating, developing new skills, and teaching.
JMU: Thanks so much for chatting with me here, Myri! I look forward to seeing you again in March at CookieCon!
MS: Thank you very much, Julia! Being here with you and your friendly audience has been a wonderful experience and honor. I cannot wait to see you all in March at CookieCon!
All cookies designed and crafted by Chapix Cookies.
Photo credits: "Before Lili's Bite" by Cookies Para Todos; all others courtesy or copyright of Chapix Cookies.
Want to learn more from – and about - Myri? Great! Please join her upcoming live (text-based) cookie chat on January 18 at 12 pm central. Click here for more details and to get your questions logged in advance. In the meantime, visit Myri on her site, Facebook, Flickr, and/or Twitter.
Also, not to be missed: quick links to previous interviews with other CookieCon 2014 presenters:
Cookier Close-ups is the place on Cookie Connection where we celebrate the change-makers of the cookie decorating world. Whether forging new enterprises, inventing novel decorating techniques, or consistently charming us with their cookie decorating prowess, each of our featured thought leaders has redefined in his/her distinctive way how we interact, create, or otherwise do business here in cookie space!
If there are other cookiers you'd really like to get to know, please post requests in this forum. We'll do our best to round them up for an upcoming Cookier Close-up! Thanks!
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