The Story Behind
Exotica Bloom

Why We Reached for the Clay

It didn’t begin with a business plan.
It began with heartbreak, silence, and a lump of soft, forgiving clay.

My daughter, Sage — once full of bounce and laughter — suddenly couldn’t walk.
After weeks of hospital visits and unanswered questions, she was diagnosed with a disability.
At the same time, my mum — a beloved community cook whose hands had nourished so many — became paralyzed from the neck down after a hospital procedure.

And I, a single mother, stood in the middle of it all —
holding the questions, the appointments, the grief, the financial strain,
and the unspoken pressure of trying to keep life stitched together.

There were no words left.
Only feelings.
We had nowhere safe to put them.

So we reached for something that didn’t ask for explanations.
That welcomed the mess.
That simply waited — soft, open, and quiet.

We reached for the clay.

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No rules. No “right way.” Just hands… and hope.

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We shaped eyes to feel seen.
Hearts to feel safe.
Rainbows to remind us the storm wouldn’t last.

We sculpted grief.
We sculpted love.

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And we discovered something real 
"What the world calls magic… is simply energy,

moved by love, shaped by our hands."