Tile designs 2008.

When we moved into our new home I decided that I wanted to make my own kitchen and bathroom tiles. I have made hand made tiles in the past (at Whichford Pottery) and although the Whichford pottery floor tiles and Delft tiles are beautiful and full of character they are very time consuming and require a lot of physical effort. Motivated by urgency and being heavily pregnant at the time I decided to try to experiment with shop bought  pre glazed tiles.

All of the tiles pictured are reglazed white (cheap) tiles. The glaze is applied with a brush and allowed to dry (you can apparently add a bit of PVA to your glaze to help with adhesion- however I didn't for these) I then got my favourite sgratching tool and created these sgraffito patterns. Once the design was finished I then added the additional colours (red glaze spots on the black/ grey tiles) The tiles are then fired to 900 degrees centigrade.

These tiles hang in my home and are offset by the addition of small mosaic tiles.

Black and red tile designs. (2008) Sgraffito technique.

  • Scandinavian Chicken (2008)

    Inspired by a 1960's design. This chicken/ bird design is scratched into the shiny black earthenware glaze. The tile is then splattered with the red glaze droplets.

  • Scandinavian apple (2008)

    This apple design has stalked me for a few years. I have found versions that I have collected and developed in early sketchbooks- which have then been forgotten about- only to turn up in a doodling session years later. I have captured it on this tile so that I don't forget it!

  • Wonky dresser (2008)

    I found a version of this design on some 1950's fabric, the motif is simple and enables me to 'free-style' a bit- adding some of my family's pots/ treasures on the shelves. (oh and red spots)

Sea creature bathroom tiles.

These bathroom tiles have been decorated using a turquoise pigment in a thick transparent (low firing) glaze.

The sea creatures design is an extension to the doodles that I have been producing on my pots and in my sketchbooks over the past twenty years.

(See- Ernst Haeckel, John Maltby, Klaus Haapaniemi, Angie Lewin, Gunnar Nylund, Bjorn Winblaad)

  • Sea creatures (2008)

  • Each tile has a different sea creature doodle design.

  • Higgeldy- piggeldy "sea creature doodle" designed bathroom.