Liscense Plate Tiles

I imagined that I would have Bobby Flay for a client and researched some of his interests and came up with this idea for tile. He is big into Americana. As I was looking at American design, I remembered some restaraunts that I've been to that use liscense plates as decor and it just seemed to appeal to the modular aspect of tile application. Heres' a quick cut 'n' paste of what it might look like in a modern kitchen design, although, I think it would work really well in a country or ranch style home design also.

Ceramique de Picasso

I share a birthday with Picasso! Oct. 25th. In turn, he has been a HUGE influence on me as an artist and secretly I sometimes catch myself believing that I am his reincarnate. It was late in his career that he teamed up with the hot-shops of Vallarius in Southern France and he would make regular visits. I love the freedom with which he creates on ceramic pieces. The firing process seems to marry well with his Spanish soul and embellish his themes with an everlasting presence of passion and primordial essence. It's Picasso's carefree spirit that I was wanting to bring to my blog that examples, again the great versatility that I love about tile.

I dream of owning a Picasso plate for my art collection. Aren't they great!?!

Molela Terracottas (New Delhi)

I found some images of these terracotta plaques that look like tile to me. Anyway you slice it, it serves as another example of how great the ceramic medium is! Once an original is made, it can be cast and voila! 3-d tile repeated and able to be manufactured in multiples. I love the idea of going 3-d to this level with tile. Our use of space is not as constricting as it once was traditionally, so tile like this can applied without being in the way of the function that it serves, and possibly be re-interpreted to have new function because of its deminsionality. The possiblities are so exciting.

Portuguese Decorative Tile

Portuguese tile is some of my favorite! It was actually some of the blue and white murals that are further below that first inspired me to pursue tile as my medium of choice. I was working on a mural in Austin TX for a Meditteranean restaraunt and while researching the design I came across Persian tile and I thought it was neat. I grabbed another book completely about tile to learn more for the project and found Portuguese tile.

I have to admit, my response was that it was beautiful, probably REALLY expensive, and... I could do that!!! And so I finished up the mural for the restaraunt and began to study tile.

It was application that really drew me to the Portuguese tile. As you can see they put on everything! I don't even know what the above building is, but it sure looks good with that tile on it!

In these pictures I started to realize that tile doesn't have to be square either!

And its this picture below that I constantly go back to in my mind. I think it's absolutely stunning ornament to these columns. I see so many opportunities to do this... If only the owner could see this picture!

The Process

Making tile has a lot of steps to it. Here an artist is paint with glazes on tile that has already been fabricated.

This is the process for encaustic tile. An image is pressed into the surface of the tile and then slip is poured over to fill in the recess of the design. (Slip is liquid clay, in this case also a different colour) and then the top layers of dried slip are scraped away to reveal the raised clay body design. The end result is a tile design made without glazes. Often used for floor tile.

A neat tile mural of an old tile factory.

This is a pug-mill. It grinds up dried clay and turns it back into good clay. That's nice and eco-friendly!

Giant kilns

Glazes change colour after they are fired, so it's important to have colour charts to keep track of what yer painting.

Assembly line artists at Malibu Potteries