Some of our most cherished memories are of buildings: a childhood home, the church attended each weekend, the place where you were married, the college where you spent four of the most challenging years of your life, or the restaurant where so many birthdays were celebrated. Kai Drobish, owner of Architectural Memories, took her passion for architecture and has made ceramic plaques of Acadiana’s most iconic buildings for the past 22 years.

“I’ve always loved buildings,” says Drobish. “When I travel, I love to walk around and look at them. I lived in the French Quarter for four years and admired the architecture – the Columns Hotel was a favorite of mine.”

Growing up in Houma, she majored in ceramics at USL, but instead ended up with a degree in political science and art history from LSU. She reacquainted herself with ceramics while working with a friend in New Orleans, creating pieces for fundraisers. In 2004, she introduced a line of her own plaques at Lafayette Junior League’s Tinsel and Treasures. The sales of those plaques became the springboard for Architectural Memories, leading her to return to Lafayette in 2009.

Today her 500-square-foot studio, situated next to her Lafayette home, holds racks with thousands of unpainted ceramics and three Skutt kilns. The making of her unique keepsakes begins with a low-fire white clay,usually 5×7”, that’s wet and pliable. Working from photos, Drobish builds the image directly onto the plaque – no sketching. After rolling out thin strips of clay, she uses her ruler and knife to cut pieces that will make the shape of her building. It’s a process of slipping, scoring, pushing and smoothing, of cutting and adding more until the perspective is right. Then the plaque is fired in a kiln at about 1,900 degrees and finished with a heavy coat of glaze. 

Among her most popular plaques are the familiar Judice Inn, La Fonda’s restaurant, Borden’s Ice Cream, the Cathedral of St. John, any one of the local high schools and landmarks of UL at Lafayette.

In a typical month, Drobish makes upwards of 600 plaques so that she’ll have some on hand for stores, in busy times. Some are custom orders, like those she often makes as wedding guest gifts. For a client in Australia, a plaque of a lighthouse brings back memories. And a New Orleans family hangs a small replica of their ancestral home – a castle – left behind during the first fleeing of Cuba. 

For Drobish, who lost her own home and belongings during Hurricane Katrina, creating a memento of a client’s home that was destroyed holds special meaning. “I’ve lived through that and know that feeling,” she assures.

The plaques continue to be successful fundraiser items. Not long ago, 500 ornaments were made for a women’s organization trying to generate funds to keep a home open.

It was mid-December when we spoke, and Drobish was still pouring clay for Christmas orders.  She expected customers would be picking up their plaques right up until Christmas Eve. “Business is good, and I’m so grateful for that,” she says

Customers can find Architectural Memories at Caroline & Co. and The Kitchenary in Lafayette, the Gift Pod in Youngsville, as well as shops in Abbeville, Opelousas, Ville Platte and Baton Rouge. The plaques are also shipped all over the country, except Hawaii and Alaska. 

Though not her first experience in retail (she owned a women’s clothing store on the Riverwalk in New Orleans) Drobish shares that it’s taken her “a long time” to streamline the business side of operations. “I’d love to just make the plaques and make a living,” she admits. While she does rely on someone to manage her website, the artist still takes care of sales, invoicing, bookkeeping – and even packaging, herself. “I don’t like packaging,” she says begrudgingly.

To aspiring entrepreneurs, she offers some hard-earned knowledge: “Stick to your guns and put your nose to the grindstone. I’ve learned over the years that just because I think an idea will work, doesn’t necessarily mean it will. For instance, the only plantation home plaques that sell well are the ones where a client’s wedding has taken place, regardless of how much I might love others. Find something that works and capitalize on it.”

In Drobish’s case, she found a niche that creates a memory. “Buildings bring back memories,” she maintains. “They represent who we are and where we’ve lived our most cherished times. It really touches me that my work reminds people of their best times.”