I don't typically take on custom or historic reproduction projects, but when a good friend here in town asked me to recreate the starburst pattern her grandpa designed for her family's kitchen floor in 1955, I was intrigued. The original pattern was made from linoleum squares and was the focal point of the room for 70 years. It was showing its age and needed to be replaced, but Jess wanted to keep the pattern somewhere in the kitchen.
It may not be obvious when you look through my catalog of tiles, but I have always had a fondness for the aesthetics of the atomic age, including classic 50s starbursts. They showed up again and again in many different forms throughout the decade, and Jessica's grandpa's take on it was simple yet striking. I got curious about what it would look like in ceramic, and decided to give it my best effort.
We decided that I should reinterpret one fourth of the pattern as a 4x4 inch tile, make a mold, and then make multiples of that one tile that could be combined to create a larger 8x8 inch medallion. That gave us the visual impact of a larger medallion without having to sculpt every part of the starburst individually.
She wanted to keep the black and white color scheme from the original floor, so I designed the tile to work with the night sky glaze. I applied black underglaze to the tile then wiped it back off the high points to allow the clay color to show, and then finished with a clear coat.
They turned out really nice! Jessica thought so, too, and it meant a lot to me that she trusted me to preserve this bit of family history.
She also gave me permission to add this design to my website in case anyone else wants a piece of the 1950s in their home. (link)
