A very long time ago perhaps in the mid-60s I designed a dinnerware pattern called Sweet Shoppe .
The company by the name of Sango produced this pattern and it became a huge hit. Like most good things Sweet Shoppe came to an end. It was retired and no longer produced . I am not sure how many years the pattern was produced, it might be 4 years.
The miracle of the Sweet Shoppe design is that many people still discover this pattern and want to collect it. The good news and bad news. The good news first many people sell the Sweet Shoppe design on the web, you can do a search . The bad news is I am often hearing that it can be priced very high.
So for all you Sweet Shoppe lovers who asked me to bring back the design. Please understand that I do not manufacture any of my own products. When a dinnerware pattern is popular like that in the casual everyday market it usually does not last for too many years because the store buyers are always looking for something new . Even when designs sell very well sooner or later they slow down. People who buy a dinnerware design sometimes get very frustrated because they start to collect their pattern and before they know it the design is off the market. In certain dinnerware markets there will be patterns that last for years. Some become classics. This happens more so in the markets that sell at a higher price point. What we call " upstairs" in the dinnerware industry. I guess there was a time that fine china was mostly sold upstairs in department stores. These days depending on the layout of the store we can find upper end dinnerware in all parts of the store. Times have changed. OOPSS I have regressed. Back to the topic at hand.
In the market I have been designing for it is different world, patterns come and they go kind of like fashion design.
One thing I must tell you I lied I did not design the Sweet Shoppe pattern in the mid-60s it was actually 1999. I only said that to get your attention. You might have thought it was my dyslexia!
I often get requests for people who want to track down other designs I created 15 years ago. I feel sad to tell these people that those designs are no longer produced and their only hope is to usually search online.
DESIGNS YOU CAN BUY SOON: For everyone who likes to mix and match my designs. I have some exciting new patterns with Certified International Corp. Soon I will post a sneak peek. Well if you go to the Certified International website and click around you will find them. There are also some other wonderfully beautiful exciting designs on their website. I am a big fan of many of their other artists. One of my all-time favorites who design for Certified International is Susan Winget Designs .
PS: Thank you Joe S, Lance and all the wonderful people who were working with Sango who helped make Sweet Shoppe the hit that it was. Also a special thanks to Valderas for creating this festive photograph.