Origins
Kitchen Backsplash Installations, Decorative Stone Washed Inserts, Architectural Murals, Relief Tile Designs.
On this page you will see some new pictures, stories and discussion that might be of interest to you. Also a quote from Davy Crockett just for fun.
We have always enjoyed decorative architectural elements in our exterior and interior environments. Our tiles simply utilize those classic elements in a new way. Below you see our Fruit Garland tile installed as part of a kitchen backsplash. The next picture down is a building exterior with a similar design. Many times the architectural details of buildings are so high up that you can barely see them. When I first started thinking about this product, one of my goals was to bring these designs down from the tops of buildings and up from the doors of an antique cabinet so they could be enjoyed at eye level.
This is our Fruit Garland tile with 1/2″ wide Thin Liners, customer supplied glass mosaics and Small Acanthus Liners (19.5 x 29.5″).
Stone architectural element from a building facade.
Someone once told me, dont ever let people know how you do this, but I never followed the advice. The most common misunderstanding about how I make the tiles is that I carve each tile, or carve the original patterns for the tiles. Neither is the case. My process involves reproducing the relief patterns using a series of rubber and plaster molds. Once the plaster mold is created it can be used many times in order to many tiles. The original patterns typically come from antique furniture. Below you will see some examples of the original furniture or carved wood panels used to make the molds, and below them are the completed tiles.
Original wood panel which required a certain amount of repairs and modifications before the reproduction process was started
Lion Panel which was selected as a focal point for this gorgeous kitchen design (total size is 29 x 21).
Antique cabinet used to create molds for several tile patterns, including the Lion Panel
Resulting “Toulouse” tile along with Toulouse Scrolls, Toulouse Medallions and Plain Frame Liners (all created separately)
The total size is 26.5 x 39.
English desk containing intricate wood patterns. The central relief pattern was utilized for the English Panel tile seen below.
Completed tile set with English Panel in Very White glaze. Shown here with 1″ wide Flat Strips and Plain Frame liners (18 x 23.5).
A few new kitchen backsplash installations:
Walter Cronkite’s home on Martha’s Vineyard is now occupied by it’s new owners. They have performed some updates which included the use of our Harvest Panel tile with intricate framing. Also our flat tiles in custom glaze application. The size of this set is 24 x 28″
Our Floral tile and Thin Liners in Antique Brown along with flat strips in a glossy White glaze, surrounded by a set of Small Acanthus Liners (19.5 x 28″)
Our Very White flat tiles and Medium Medallions were used on three walls of this Chicago high rise apartment.
Bordeaux pattern (below) with Plain Frame liners in a Stone Wash glaze. 2×2 Florets matching the center of the main tile are used as accents thought the rest of the field tiles. The size of this set is 16 x 21.5″
Even without the range, the installation shown here is eye catching. I wouldn’t necessarily suggest the use of our Small Half Round liners directly next to our Henry’s Liners, but in this case, listening to the ideas of a imaginative customer was just the thing to do. The size of this set is 16 x 22″.
Although I have not been to Paris for inspiration, I have been to San Antonio. This is the main entrance to the San Jose Mission, 2nd only to the Mission San Antonio de Valero (The Alamo). On any given Sunday, these doors are used by parishioners who will attend Masses similar to those that have occurred here for the past 244 years.
This is an example of how we live with architecture.
