Our Story
How a handmade flower shop began, and what it has become.
Where It Began
It started with Thai clay miniature flowers. I fell in love with them, every tiny petal, and I wished more than anything that I knew how to make them.
Nobody taught me. I bought clay and tools and started teaching myself, one petal at a time, until I had made my very first miniature flower by hand.
Clay Orchids
I listed that first flower in my Etsy shop and called it Clay Orchids. It worked. Someone bought it, and then someone else did, and the business bloomed, order after order.
All of it happened alongside a full-time career as a senior graphic designer, and raising four children.
Fourteen Years
Fourteen years of handmade flowers, one pair of hands, and more than 1,500 reviews on the same Etsy shop. It began with miniatures, tiny orchids and little potted gardens, and grew into roses, peonies and full-size blooms, each one made the same way as that very first flower.
Brides began to ask for flowers of their own, and the work found its purpose: everlasting bouquets, hair flowers for brides and bridesmaids, and small flowers for the littlest girls in the wedding party.
“Flowers that never go bad, and last forever.”
Michelle, Founder
What It Became
Over fourteen years, the Etsy shop that sold my first clay flower grew and refined into Ivory & Bloom Atelier, my luxury bridal accessories brand today. There has only ever been one shop: I opened it as Clay Orchids and later renamed it Ivory Bloom Wedding.
Same maker, same reputation, same rule: handmade with care.
— Michelle
Visit Ivory & BloomTwo Names, One Maker
Clay Orchids and Ivory & Bloom are one business, and both are mine. Clay Orchids is where I began. Ivory & Bloom is the luxury brand that beginning became. I keep this website so the clay flowers and the story behind them have a home of their own.
You are here
Where it began. Come here for my story, my gallery and custom clay flowers: everlasting bouquets, hair flowers, flower girl pieces, boutonnieres and corsages.
See what I makeWhere we are today
My luxury bridal accessories brand. Go there for the satin purses and bridal sets, handmade with the same care as my very first flower.
Visit Ivory & Bloom (opens in a new tab)
I fell in love with Thai clay miniature flowers, taught myself, and made my first one by hand.
I listed that flower in my Etsy shop and called it Clay Orchids. It sold, and order after order followed, alongside a full-time career as a senior graphic designer and raising four children.
Tiny orchids grew into roses, peonies and full-size blooms. Brides began to ask for flowers of their own, and the work found its purpose.
I renamed the shop Ivory Bloom Wedding. It stayed one shop, with the same hands behind every order.
The shop grew and refined into a luxury bridal accessories brand, with satin purses and bridal sets alongside the flowers that started it all.
Fourteen years of happy brides, 4.9 stars from more than 1,500 Etsy reviews, 4.7 stars from 1,289 Facebook ratings, and more than 2,700 happy buyers. Two websites, one maker.
What I Believe
Every petal and leaf is shaped one at a time. Nothing is stamped out or mass-produced.
Clay flowers never wilt. What you carry down the aisle is something you keep.
Every order is made in your colors, for your wedding, never pulled from a shelf.
You work with me directly, from the first message to the moment your flowers arrive.
