Handmade Tile: Design, Create, and Install Custom Tiles

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From the Publisher

Handmade Tile: Design, Create, and Install Custom Tiles

A contemporary guide for ceramic artists and anyone interested in custom tile installations—from making, designing, and decorating to designing your space and installation.

Handmade Tile: Design, Create, and Install Custom Tiles

Introduction

In this book, I’ll outline much of what I wish I had known when I stumbled headlong into the world of tile with only an academic knowledge of the craft. Admittedly, this book cannot do it all. It is not meant to be the bible on making tile. Tile has a rich history and it would take another book (actually, multiple books!) to cover it all. In the pages that follow, what you’ll find is a useful primer. It’s a survey of techniques, ideas, and tips that will help you move confidently from inspiration to realization. Through these chapters, you will develop an idea, put it into context, assess the viability of your project, and install the tile in a lasting and thoughtful way. It will be your guide in problem solving and act as a doorway into further exploration.

The Basics

In this chapter, we’ll take a brief look at tile’s history, we’ll learn key terminology that will be important throughout the book, and we’ll also examine a few key types of tile as well as a handful of common setting styles. Though it’s impossible to provide a complete crash course in the history of tile, my hope is that this chapter will begin to change your perspective, so you, too, will fall in love with this unique medium.

Making Tile

In this chapter, I outline several methods I recommend for making tile. Even if you are a seasoned tile maker, consider trying each method and be open to new possibilities. Find the time to be a beginner and see where it takes you. Each lesson is based on a proven result, and although some may not click with you, I am confident others will fit your needs. Take good notes, share ideas with friends, and when you aren’t making tile or reading this book, dive deep into the history of the tile you love most. When you feel ready, mix things up and see where it takes you.

A contemporary guide for ceramic artists and anyone interested in custom tile installations

Surface: Glaze, Decoration, and Firing Tile

Surface treatment is the most researched and revered element of the entire ceramic tiling process. Surface decoration, while complex, is also what makes ceramic tile so significant. It is the fingerprint that gives clues to a tile’s lineage. In the same manner that we may be rendered speechless by a mosque laden with intricate Persian tile or the allure of a satin glaze, tile speaks to our most basic instincts and unconsciously draws us in. Use this chapter as a doorway to playful exploration of surface techniques and to develop your own voice through trial and error.

Designing Your Space

Look down: if you are indoors, your feet are probably standing on a surface that someone put a lot of consideration into. What are your thoughts? Are the material choices good or bad? Do you feel indifferent? Although flooring is one of the most used surfaces in any room, it is also the surface that is taken for granted most often. Just like any cup, plate, car, or umbrella, tile is designed for both form and function. Because of the endless reservoir of material options, choice is everything. Design, durability, cost, comfort, and material accessibility are more important than ever, and these considerations are the key elements that we will explore in this chapter.

Installation

By this point you should have a good understanding of quality handmade tile as well as an understanding of the history, aesthetic choices, design process, and certainly the blood, sweat, and tears of creating the tile itself! I wish I could say things get easier, but we’re now arriving at the part that many dread most: installation. Of all of the things that can make or break your tile (sometimes literally), the installation is the most difficult, as it requires a set of skills outside the realm of ceramics. The good news is that this is also where you begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. This is a long process finally coming to an end and the fruits of your labor will soon be revealed.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Quarry Books; Illustrated edition (October 1, 2019)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0760364303
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0760364307
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.75 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.5 x 0.85 x 10.4 inches