Arts and Crafts Tile

I sent out the first of my new rooster and bee tiles four short days ago, so I am surprised and delighted that I just received pictures of some of them installed. That was fast! This a great tile layout for a kitchen. I love how the slate wall tiles extend onto the counter in stripes. (more pictures below) The cinnamon glaze on the art tiles plays off the reds & browns in the stone. These designs have significance for the homeowners; a rooster and bee are historical symbols of the town in which they live. This local connection makes the installation...

This installation was a long time in the making. The customer ordered some art tiles, which I made and shipped to her. Then she realized that she needed more to complete her vision for her kitchen, so she ordered more. But Autumn is a high variation glaze which comes out different with every firing, so it took me several tries to match her original tiles. Fortunately, she was very patient & is now quite happy with the results. Yay! An assortment of handmade tiles are set among glass and slate mosaic tiles, surrounded by a ceramic border to make a...

Tree art is a natural choice for fireplace decor, since fireplaces burn wood & wood comes from trees. Using representations of trees in hearth design pays homage to the trees that are burned there. These installation photos I recently received are a great illustration of this idea. And as an added bonus, one of tree tiles featured is my brand new 4"x4" oak leaf tile. It looks great installed! Close up of the oak leaf tile in the afternoon sun. The color of the glaze looks so right with the stone tile and wood floor. Earth tones and neutrals blend together...

I've been busy this week sculpting various 4"x4" tiles, including a completely new Rooster design. The Honey Bee was already available as a 2"x2" tile and I am re-sizing it. I am also working on enlarging one of my cat tiles, but it is not ready for the public eye. The rooster and bee, however, are almost finished:  I am going to fiddle with the wings and feathers a bit more, and then make molds. The mold making process will destroy the original proofs, but that is ok because with the finished molds I can make hundreds of reproductions of...

Seeing customer installation pictures never fails to make me happy, so getting these photos from Nan S. was quite a treat. She has a stairway in her home, and she wanted to increase the visual impact of this transitional space with tiles. She achieved her goal brilliantly, but not in the way you might expect. Instead of tiling the stair treads and risers, she tiled the walls and ceiling of the stairwell. And lucky for me, she took lots of pictures: The view up the stairs. Art tiles are 6"x6" Tree of Life and 4"x4" Acorn The upper wall and...

The new heron tile I have been working on is ready at last. It is pictured here alongside my original heron tile. Both are shown glazed in Watercolor Blue. As you can see, the new tile is a mirror image of the original, so now you can order two heron tiles that face each other in my online store.  A pair of these would look great installed on opposite sides of a fireplace; or maybe over a kitchen stove along with some cattail or cypress tiles. There are lots of possibilities & I look forward to seeing what ideas people come up with...

If it is wrong to love a kitchen, then I don't want to be right. Because I love this kitchen. How could I not? The cabinets, counters and floor have a limited color palette, clean lines, and not too much ornamentation. This simplicity really sets off the fun, multi-colored art tiles.  The high gloss, black granite counters create a mirror effect, further emphasizing the tiles. I made the patterned, relief tiles, the field tiles are by a different manufacturer- if I find out which one, I will give them credit here. Thanks to Susan Hall, of One Source Design, for...

...it would have been WAY faster to convert seven of my most popular 4"x4" tile designs to the 2"x2" size. But it would have been way less fun, so it is probably for the best that there is no such thing as a shrink ray. If you aren't familiar with my work, these tiles I just finished sculpting probably won't look all that small to you. But to me, they look amazingly, adorably tiny. Like fun sized candy bars. I have been making most these designs for several years in the 4"x4" size, so they feel like old friends. It...