I don't know about you....but I hate fly out menus! You move your mouse over to what you want to click on and a bunch of menus fly out at a dizzying rate. It has been one feature of my website I have wanted to change for some time, but I wasn't real sure what to do and how to do it. After years of having my own website  I have learned a lot about how to build a site & a little coding - you know, just enough to make me dangerous!

So after lots of fiddling and futzing I have created my own navigation button. I think it makes browsing cleaner.  I hope you like them....check it out.

...and thanks to so much kind encouragement, I am going to try to keep on creating. Within minutes of announcing I was going out of business I received so many emails expressing sadness at my closing my doors and hope I would reconsider, it was overwhelming! I had no idea I had touched so many with my work!

Times have been tough, and the last few years have taken their toll, starting with losing Mom and ending with few sales, I just felt I had lost the magic. But all your kind words and encouragement have recharged my batteries! Thank you! Thank you!

Going forward I will be introducing new and exciting pieces (some I just got in today). I'm going to try to send out more newsletters, so make sure you sign up! And most importantly, I am going to lower my prices across the board - after losing my wholesalers when I announced I was going out of business, I now can offer lower prices to everyone - yeah!

Shipping continues to be an issue and I will do my best to keep it as low as I can, but ceramics have to be packed securely and that often makes the parcels weighty. This is one area that may go up, I can only hope you understand  I have no control over this cost, and it seems to go up often. I promise to keep doing my best!

So thanks again to all of you who wrote me - it was so appreciated! And please, don't stop! I enjoyed hearing from you and hearing your ideas. So many of you are more like friends than clients now and I'm loving it. We artsy fartsy types can be kind of sensitive and you all have made me feel just great!

Well, the time has come. It's been a difficult decision. Not only do I love what I do, but I am so very emotionally attached to Whimsical Bliss Studios. Even down to the name.

Mom and I sat around one evening, 10 years ago, trying to come up with a name for our business. We started writing down words we liked. I liked "whimsical", she liked "bliss".  And so it began.

We called the kiln our "big easy bake oven". Then at our first show a lady came into our booth and said our pieces looked good enough to eat, like something from a bakery. By the time we got home we had our tag line, "Bakers of Fine Ceramic Confections".

But now I have to let it go, and return it all to hobby status. I'm sure it will come as no shock that in the last two to three years my sales have declined to nearly nothing. Sadly, those are the same years I have had to go it all alone, and I am tired. And I can finally admit, lonely.

It was all so much fun, Mom and I creating, oohing and ahhing when something came out of the kiln that was beyond our expectations. Or commiserating when something failed in the firing. Spitballing ideas, doing shows, laughing - often covered in glaze.

We were so proud and excited when we were featured in Romantic Homes Magazine for the Mother's Day issue featuring mothers and daughters, and we were so disappointed when we discovered they printed the wrong phone number. We laughed that our 15 minutes of fame got cut to just shy of 10.

It was Mom who started making the roses, and the story of her remembering how to make them when she looked heavenward and asked her mother to remind her of what she taught her as a child is true. Mom tried to teach me to make roses and I would always put her off saying "why do I need to learn when you make them so well?". It never accrued to me I have to do any of this without her. So I asked grandma to teach me how to make roses, and she did.

Shows. We did lots of shows. We loved them and we hated them. We made lots of friends, and missed seeing them when we could no longer do them. But we didn't miss the physical part of doing a show. We were always the first ones to set up and the last to tear down. Packing all the ceramic pieces was like moving each time. Each piece had to be wrapped in bubble wrap and carefully packed. And don't forget the tent, the tables, the table clothes, display items, etc....... Some shows were worth it - and some shows were lots of work with very little to show for it. My Father and my husband were the unsung heroes of our shows, they were our faithful roadies.

Dad also wired all our lamps. Mom embellished lamp shades to match each one. This has truly been a family affair. Our lamps inspired Dad to start making lamps out of everything and anything. Toasters, mixers, toys, purses, you name it - he'd wire it!

There were the catalog years. We were invited to be part of a artisan catalog and they choose my "Oz" plate. It was a big hit! The plate featured two red shoes with sparkling red rhinestones and lacework rim. The center of the plate said,"The Wizard of Oz is just a movie about two women fighting over a pair of shoes.".  For the better part of a year I would make 24 to 48 plates a month, I thought the kiln would burn up in re-entry. The money was good, and I saw red shoes in my sleep. It all came to an end when Ted Turner contacted the catalog and asked them to cease and desist selling my plate, an items from other artists referring to The Wizard of Oz. You see he owns the movie and apparently my plate threatened to topple his empire.... So the catalog began selling my Cinderella Plate, I was told Disney didn't care and apparently saw it as free advertisement. Go figure.

And WBS was such a blessing when Mom was diagnosed with cancer. Her three year fight was painful and courageous, and I tried to do it all so she wouldn't have to be bothered. Then she told me one day that she needed to paint, to create, to keep her mind off the ugly stuff in her life. And so we painted together to the end.  If your reading this and you have one of our Ceramic Confections signed by Lou, cherish it, because Mom painted that one.

I have tried to keep it all going, but I have failed. Supplies and shipping have become more and more expensive. And I have to think that without Mom, by my self, some of the magic is gone.  My pieces just don't seem to sell as well. Or maybe it's the lack of feed back that keeps my inspiration from growing. And the economy hasn't helped any.

I hold this secret hope I'll win the lottery and I can keep this all going, but I know that's just a dream. So it's time to close this chapter. It's been a lovely ride and I thank all of you who have appreciated what I, and my Mom, have created.  We hope your Ceramic Confections continue give you years of lasting pleasure.

My Father and my husband used to tease Mom and I that in a 100 years or so someone will be on the Antiques Roadshow with one of our pieces. And there would be the explanation of Mom and I and the studio, blah,blah,blah, and the person would have that look, you know the one. The one where they're thinking,"Ya,ya - what's it worth?". And the appraiser rattles of a number that delights the owner. And there are smiles all around. If this should happen to one of your relatives, know that Mom and I are looking down and high-fiving. It was all worth it!

I invite you to join me in my new venture here.

Hugs to you all and thanks again!

It's been awhile since my last post! I have been busy with with a new technique, transferring photos on to a plate. When I first discovered the technique I thought it was a great idea, but - would it work? So I gathered the supplies needed and gave it a try. The first plate I did was my cats on a small salad plate. Wow, come out good! Mmmmm, needed to try again to make sure it wasn't beginners luck. So I created several photo ready plates and gathered a variety of photos. Some old, some newer, some black and white, some sepia. They came out good too, check them out in the Keepsake Gallery! I was beginning to love this technique!

As I was learning the basic technique, I added some extras. Although these photo plates are not food and water safe (I'm not really sure why you'd want to serve anything on someone's face...?)I found a way to seal the photo to the plate so they will last and prevent yellowing to become heirlooms.

I am having great fun making photo ready keepsake plates, all I need to do is add your photo. I have also created a few custom plates as well. More fun as I create a plate specifically themed to a photo. You'll notice that I took the photo of Agnes Patrica and created a plate customized to her love of birdhouses. I also created a custom plate for my mother-in-law for Mother's Day, she has a marvelous garden, and on her plate I used two photos. She loved it and had to show all her friends and neighbors!

Beyond the fun of creating these Keepsake Photo Plates is heirloom aspect. I am an amateur genealogist, I have been working on the family tree for years and collecting family pictures. I have framed photos all over my walls as well. I think it's important to remember and pay homage to those that came before us. They paved the way for the opportunities we have and I find it endlessly fascinating how much of my  creativity, personality and physical presence was passed on to me.  These keepsake plates are wonderful remembrances and are as individual as the photo, that frozen moment in time.

Each Keepsake Photo Plate I do, photo ready or custom, is precious and I am honored to be able to create each and every one.

I haven't written in a while  - I'm working on some exciting new pieces. Stay tuned!

But in the meantime I got a delightful surprise today! One of my Sunglass Box was featured in a fun blog on sunglass items found on Artfire. I have a studio there under the name of Bud and Lucy's Kid. The blog is Cataluna Designs and she features some lovely and fun pieces. I am honored to be included - Thank you!

   Today, St. Patrick's Day, is my grandmothers birthday. That's why my mother's mom had Patricia as her middle name. Today she'd be 102, I think.
   My grandmother was quite a lady. Her father was a high ranking navel officer in Her Majesty's Royal Navy, who retired and left England for Mexico. He owned silver and copper mines. While in Mexico he met my great-grandmother who was a Spaniard who's father was involved in Mexican politics of the day. They married and even though neither spoke the others language they managed to communicate and have ten children. Agnes Patricia was born in the middle of all the children, about 1910.
   We aren't exactly sure of her birth year because of Pancho Villa. You see, my great-grandfather flew the English flag and apparently Pancho Villa took offense. So he rounded up the entire family, with the exception of Agnes' father who was away at the mines. My grandmother remembered Pancho Villa holding her up by her long blond hair as he prepared to slit her throat. At the last minute he decided instead to put the entire family in one room of there house and burn it down with them in it. While Pancho Villa's men were preparing to do this, one of my grandmother's older brothers escaped dressed in woman's clothing. He ran and found General Pershing who arrived in the nick of time and saved them and brought them all to this country. However, the house did indeed burn down and along with it all the birth certificates.
   As a young girl I remember my grandmother working in a hospital cafeteria as a "tray girl" who helped prepare the trays for the patients. Agnes had very fair skin and blue eyes and for years dyed her hair blond. She told the other girls she was French, and even though she had a thick Spanish accent, they believed her. Years later when she retired she let the girls know that all the times they gossiped, especially about her, in Spanish, she heard and understood it all!
   Yep, she was quite a lady! I learned when mom and I stared this business that my grandmother had done some ceramic work in her day as well.
   In her later years her passion was birdhouses. She had them everywhere. When she died I think we counted over 500 birdhouses in and around the house. That might sound like her house was a hot mess of birdhouses, but it was so cute the local newspaper wanted to do a story on her.  I still have many of her birdhouses to remember her by.
   Here is a picture of Agnes Patricia on a birdhouse bench I had made for her, along with her pooch.

   Happy Birthday Agnes Patricia!

   My Mom and I have always loved lace. All types, delicate and heavy, simple and intricate. I learned to tat about twenty years ago, and since then I have tatted tables clothes, purses and, yes, doilies.
   So when my Mom and I started Whimsical Bliss Studios we wanted to recreate the  the look we loved on our teapots and other pieces. We experimented with different techniques and finally found the look we liked. We started out doing dots, lots of dots. And that started giving us the lacy look. But it seemed rather limited and we wanted the patterns to actually look like lace, so we continued experimenting. We learned to control the dimensional glaze we used and began to add more line patterns.
And that was not easy. The dimensional glaze came in a little tube and didn't flow very well. We worked at it and worked at it. The worst was when an air bubble would form. You could be working away and the air bubble would come out  and make a nasty noise. It, well, it sounded like, you know, a fart. There I said it! The glaze would fart and we would either laugh until we cried - or - the air bubble would "splat " the glaze everywhere and make a mess and we'd cuss till the air turned blue. Then we'd laugh!
   As I have perfected my technique I also came up with my own formula for the dimensional glaze that works well and rarely farts. So now I'm free to create intricate designs without interruption.
   I lost Mom in 2008, you can read more about her here and here. I'd sure love to laugh till I cry over farting glaze with her again!
   Now I can't help but put lace an just about everything I do. Nothing makes a piece look more feminine! And some how I think of  teapots as feminine. It seems it's always a woman brewing a pot of tea. So putting lace on a teapot just seemed the right thing to do!
   Teapots come in so many shapes and sizes, kinda like us ladies, but all look more grand with lace. Here is a sample of some lacy teapots, I love them all!