I have been making tiles full time since 1983, beginning by selling them at Art & Craft shows around Southern California, where I was born and raised. After marrying my husband Mike, and moving to Petaluma in Northern California I sold mostly at the Harvest Festival shows, the Gilroy Garlic Festival and Art & Wine Festivals around the Bay Area.
Before beginning my tile-making career I was a primary school teacher, with credentials in Art Education, and also taught ceramics in the evenings at Coastline Community College, having a credential in Fine and Applied Arts.
I first discovered this interesting and unique tile making technique during a trip to Italy. I become fascinated with the linear architectural designs, and the brightly colored glazes of the tiles I purchased during my trip and realized that the technique could be applied to all kinds of designs, which I was eager to try. Immediately upon my return home I started experimenting. It took quite a bit of trial and error to figure out exactly how to make these as there was not a lot of information available. Historically, the technique (called Cuença by the Spaniards) was used by several of the Mediterranean cultures and here in
the United States and Great Britain by the tile manufacturers of the Arts & Crafts movement. Large scale is now nearly obsolete due to the amount of handwork involved.
My husband, Mike and I handcraft the entire tile by ourselves. First we carve our original designs into a plaster mold of our own composition. when the mold has dried sufficiently, we begin casting-one tile mold per day. The tiles are dried slowly in order to prevent warping and cracking , rough edges are hand sanded and then the tiles are bisque-fired to approximately 1800 º F. After allowing the tiles to cool for several hours in the kiln, we begin applying the glazes. The raised linear pattern is not only an attractive element of the design, but also acts as a "dam" for the beautiful glazes which would otherwise run together during the second 1800 º firing. We are continually looking for new glazes in order to expand our color palette.
All of our tiles are durable and suitable for permanent grouting in kitchen and bathroom walls and backsplashes, showers and outside pool and patio areas. However, the majority of these are intended to be hung on the wall and viewed as "little ceramic paintings."
