The Process

All tiles start with an idea, an oooh, that would make a beautiful tile. From a photograph of the plant, or an actual piece of the plant, a drawing is developed in the exact size of the tile desired.

Next, a 1/2" thick slab of clay is rolled and cut to size. The design is transfered to the clay using the "cartoon" method, the same one used in making frescoes, outlining the drawing with tiny pinpricks. The tile is then carved and finished completely.

To make the mold, a damp tile is placed on a flat sheet of plexiglass, surrounded by a wooden frame called a cottle, and the frame is then carefully filled with casting plaster. When the plaster finally dries in a week or two, the clay original falls out, leaving a negative image of the tile in the plaster.

After the mold is completely dry, duplicate tiles are made by pressing clay slabs into the mold. Each tile is slowly dried so as not to warp, this takes a week to 10 days or more, according to the weather. The dry tile is then bisque fired, which takes a day to fire and a day for the kiln to cool down, then coated with glaze and glaze fired, another two days. As is evident, there is a lot of hurry up and wait in tile making.

artist photo