hen on a whim Sharon Nannini took a part-time course in painting pots a couple of years ago, she had no idea that from this small seed would grow a new business idea ? and change her from housewife to entrepreneur.

Bored at home after her children had flown the nest, she had been looking to fill the void left by their departure.

And it was as she sat and learned the painstaking craft putting her design ideas into reality, that she discovered a passion that would change her life.

?I never really thought of myself as artistic,? said Mrs. Nannini. ?But I loved it straight away. It was wonderful.?

After the course, she kept up her new-found skill and began looking for more pots to paint and transform into her works of art.

?The children had left, and there was a gap in my life,? said Mrs. Nannini.

She had been a full-time mom to her children and a dedicated wife to her husband Fosco, who has been in the ice-cream and restaurant business for 23 years, running Il Palio, the H?agen Dazs store in Dockyard, Pirate?s Landing and a successful import/export business.

She met Fosco in 1976 while he was working at the Waterlot at the Southampton Princess, but she decided he was too short for her ? she is six foot and he a whole inch shorter than her.

But his charm won her over. ?He had me hooked,? she said about him after their first date.

?I was divorced with no intention of getting married again ? but it worked. It has been an incredible time and we have just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary.?

However, the way to married bliss, it seems, is not to work together, because two years ago in a bid to find something to do, she took a job working for her husband at the ice cream store ? but hated it.

?I did not like working for my husband,? she said.

?And I did not stay for very long. I took training to do the dips and there he was telling me what to do... and I said I cannot do this.?

So she went back home, and to her pots, and started in earnest painting, and slowly started taking commissions for friends and family who liked her work.

?At first I was really embarrassed about selling it,? she said.

?But I was having problems finding pots to paint. They were costing about $400 before being painted ? and they were not just right.?

So when she was in Italy with her husband she spied some pots that she loved the look of, and squeezed them in at the end of the food containers he brought in.

t first it was a few extra here and there brought in the back of a container load, but as the commissions grew so did her orders, and the shipments became bigger.

?I started bringing in larger pieces, which people really preferred.

?They look great around pools and outside and can resist the weather all year round. But they take up a lot of room, and space was getting a bit tight.?

So when the space above Pirate?s Landing in Dockyard became available, Mr. Nannini suggested she try to make a go of it on her own, running her own business.

?It is a bit like a studio and a shop,? she said about Terracotta Italia, the store she opened last year.

?I open from about 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the week and at the weekend until about 6 p.m. or later if there are ships in.?

And while her rent is subsidised by the family business at the moment, her aim is to make it a going concern in its own right.

?It always takes about a year for a business to get off the ground,? she said. ?And it has done very well since we opened in May ? we have had a lot of customers, both local and visitors.?

And now she has the space, she sells not only her own pots, but glazed and unglazed pots from Italy as well as a kind of do-it-yourself frescos imported from Italy which have proven very popular.

The range is wide as well, with the cheapest thing on the shelves $10 ranging right up to hundreds of dollars for the large painted pots.

?If someone wants their pots painted, they can tell me the colours or I can go to their home or office and suggest something,? she said.

And she said that through word of mouth the business is becoming better known with more commissions coming in every day.

And with the tourist season just around the corner, she expects to sell more to the tourists that drop in looking for something a bit different.

?It really is the best job I could ever have,? she said. ?I am so happy doing what I am doing. I have a studio, my own business and the support of a wonderful family. What more could a woman want??