Firstly WOW you created and hold the patent on that! Amazing. I'd say that level of creativity and ingenuity gives you a 'free ride' ticket for the rest of life. You can ride on those laurels and just consider all your other work as icing on the cake! Well done you.

I LOVE tiled fireplaces! I love ceramics and tiles in general. Some of my favourites are the Pewabic tiles of Michigan. The tiles were and are so beautiful and the movement was pretty cool. My grandparents used to own an amazing house in Detroit back before the riots in the 60's and only sold that place shortly thereafter, but they had fireplaces with such tiles in and they are so striking!

Well, as you know, I'm sort of in a forced meditative state with my own creation having to give up part of my day to things outside my own normal studio time. Yet, it is all life and change is part of that.

With that change and rumination we can either embrace the inevitability of it or feel controlled by it. I know we are smart enough to see it as a learning time and know that with the change will come a new greater way of being and creating at the other end of it.

Also, not sure your age, but there is that 7 year system we are all meant to feel. If you are at the beginning or end of that 7 year, that also is sometimes telling.

Have fun with your tiles. This is exactly how I feel with my black and white drawings/artwork :)