Ida C. Failing was a major player in the Denver, Colorado, art world from the 1880s to her death. She established her own decoration studio and was known nationally and in Europe for her designs and embellishment of china. Her signed tableware is eagerly collected.

Miss Failing was the daughter of a Macon, Illinois, banker who moved his family to Denver in the 1880s. By 1891 she was being described as “one of Denver’s most popular artists” in the Detroit (Michigan) Free Press newspaper. “She holds many medals and other prizes from World’s Fair and other contests, among them, being a first prize in cup and saucer at Chicago, a first in similar work from the Boston Art Institute, and several others,” the Lawrence, Kansas, Jeffersonian-Gazette reported. Her designs were featured in the internationally circulated magazine of the Keramic Studio of Syracuse, New York.

She also was an illustrator and among her works is the celebrated 1902 book "Buttercups and Clover, and Other Verses" by Arthur Ward (Arthur Ward Barnes).