You have probably seen our beautiful wall tiles and other tile products at your favorite gift shops and in your favorite catalogs.  What you may not know is that Jessica herself played an instrumental part in bringing this product line to the fantasy market.  As a matter of fact, she was the first to design the now popular hanging wall tile!  Here she is in her own words...

"A few years ago, I stumbled upon the world of dye sublimation.  I purchased the dye sublimation printer and a heat press, and began experimenting with putting my art on a large manner of products available through the suppliers.  I was immediately attracted to the idea of my art on tile.  I had seen other artists putting their art on small square tiles for use with easels.  I loved these little tiles, but wanted to develop something new.

I ordered some sample 8" x 10", larger wall tiles.  We put a few of my paintings on them and they looked stunning, but I was stumped as to how to display them.  There were frames available, but I wanted something different.  I ordered some hangers, and some beautiful ribbon, and thought - this is it!  But, the tricky part was getting the hangers to attach to the ceramic tile.  The larger tiles were quite heavy, and we needed some really strong adhesive.

My husband Josh and I set about collecting all manner of industrial strength, clear adhesive.  We set up a little lab where we tested all the glues.  We knew we had found the ideal glue when we could hang 15 pound weights off each hanger once the glue had set!  I tied on a beautiful gossamer ribbon, and was ready to put these out to the public. 

I first sold them retail only through my web site, but quickly, the stores wanted them!  So, I offered them wholesale with my art only.  At that time, my two dear friends, Amy Brown and Nene Thomas, noticed them and expressed interest in us putting their art on tile.  Of course we were honored, but Josh and I also knew that this would require some serious preparation.

We invested in five, large industrial heat presses and a better model of printer that could handle our work load.  We created a catalog with all three of our best works on wall tiles.  We became the Amy, Jess, Nene wall tile company also known as Ceramic Sensations.  We trademarked our product name: Ceramic Sensations through the U.S. Trademark office.  We released them to the fantasy art market to a HUGE reception.  An aside: up until this point, my husband Josh was in the Air Force working full time as an F-16 mechanic.  We made the tough decision to have him quit his job to make tiles full time.  It was a decision we never regretted.

Quickly, our business was booming and the wall tile became known as the newest, hottest product on the market.  We won many awards for these best selling items.  With little to no advertising, our business just kept increasing.  To be honest, it got a little scary at times.  We didn't know how we were going to fill all these orders.  Josh got up to the point where he could make 100 tiles per day.  We hired employees to help tie ribbons, package and ship the tiles.  The orders kept coming.

We kept up as best we could, and our customers seemed to not mind too much waiting on their orders since they knew the tiles would sell - often before they were able to even hang them in their shops.  It seemed I really had a whopper of an idea in this wall tile thing.  I was tickled, flattered and excited!  Josh was too - but he was very very busy and joked that he should just chain himself to the tile presses.

Then Spencers, the huge gift store chain in the U.S., wanted to order.  We took one look at the numbers they planned on ordering and knew we couldn't handle it.  It was at this point that I began talking to Dennis, president of Add An Accent, Inc. about helping us out.  I had already worked with Dennis for several years with my ornaments.  His company makes fantasy gift items overseas, and imports and distributes them here.  He helped us with the initial Spencers deal, and then took over all further Spencers deals for us.  Again, I was thrilled!  Amy, Nene and I had wall tiles in every Spencers store!

However, Josh and I were still buried under a mountain of tile orders that seemed to only get worse.  It was a good problem to have, but still a problem.  We considered building a warehouse and expanding.  But, deep in our hearts, we knew we didn't want to go this route.  So, this is when Dennis and I began some serious talks about his company taking over for us.

Not too long after, Dennis and I reached an agreement and his company, Add An Accent, purchased our company and completely took over our Ceramic Sensations line.  I was thrilled yet again!  And of course Dennis was thrilled too because he got to add this great new product to his line up.  Of course he signed on the three girls who started the tile craze (Amy Brown, myself and Nene Thomas), but he also went on to add some other very talented artists.  The top artists in the industry as a matter of fact, including Brian Froud and Josephine Wall.  He still continues to add to his artist line up as well, and just recently signed my good friend Lisa Steinke who does beautiful images combined with inspirational sentiments.  Dennis also signed one of my favorite artists in the whole world, Linda Ravenscroft.  Her work is simply stunning and should prove a great addition to the line up.

To this day, the tiles are booming for Add an Accent.  I see them in stores and catalogs and smile to myself thinking - hey, I started that!

There are even knock off companies now!  There is a saying that you know you have 'arrived' when people begin to copy your ideas.  There are now other wall tile immitations out there.  I find that it is inevitable, when a good idea comes around, that others without their own unique ideas will play the copycat game. 

Of course Add An Accent is still producing the best selling wall tiles under the Ceramic Sensations name that I trademarked years ago.  I see them in more and more catalogs and stores.  And I am still proud and honored to have started all this in my tiny studio one day, years ago, playing around with tiles, hangers and smelly glue.  I love seeing what Dennis and the other wonderful folks at Add An Accent have done.  They've really taken the ball and run with it.  Who would have thought one little idea could blossom into something so wonderful.

Josh and I still make our own tiles here.  We have to get some use out of those five giant heat presses, right?!  All the wall tiles for sale on my site as well as the other tile products offered here are hand crafted by my husband Josh.  We hope you enjoy them!"

- Jessica Galbreth