I was delighted to receive these photos of a heron-themed, watercolor blue fireplace surround that was created as part of an eco-friendly restoration of a 150+ year old home in Maryland.
I got a kick out of seeing the heron theme repeat in the tiles and the painting over the mantel. A pair of herons flank a cattail tile to create the central focal point of the tile installation. Other animals (and a few plants) also make an appearance on either side. The Herons and cattails are each 4x8 inches in size, and the other feature tiles are 4x4 inches each. You can see them all in these close-ups:
Here is an in-progress photo from before the tiles were grouted:
It may be obvious, but I made both the feature tiles and the matching field tiles. If you want to see a video of the tiles before they left my studio, you can see it on my Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/p/DNjXUlOJAUj/
Before the remodel, the hearth looked ok from a distance but had some issues. The homeowner shared: "The columns were removed, and if you look closely you can see that they were not the same height. We think the columns were not original as they appear to have been set on the sloping floors in an way to fool the eye to make you think everything was square. In fact, the sloping floor was due to a foundation issue that has been corrected."
Big thank you to T.D. for making my tiles part of the long history of your lovely home! I hope it is still standing (and loved) 150 years from now.
