It is easy to forget, in this age of continuous presses, 100 metre tunnel kilns, digital inject decoration and ultra-sophisticated body prep systems, that the age-old skills of the artisan tile maker still flourish … and still command great consumer appeal.
In the UK, Original Style has assiduously preserved this tradition, allying superb hand-made ceramics with skilled marketing and effective business management, to create a profitable business that really delivers on the aesthetic front.
A good current example is this beautiful new collection of wall tiles launched by The Winchester Tile Company (an Original Style brand). These softly sophisticated glazed tiles were inspired by iconic British gardens and the historic market towns of England’s Suffolk. Hand-crafted by skilled artisans in and around Devon, there is something quintessentially English about the range.
The intricate new patterns, called Bicton, Kew, Rosemoor and Wisley, are available in five soft colourways: Helmingham, Vintage, Dunwich, Snape and Sudbury.
They come in one half-tile format: 150 by 75mm.
Further coverage of the design trends at Coverings 2017 – where Original Style was one of three UK-based exhibitors – can be found in Tile & Stone Journal May 2017, Pages 48-65, or online.
A new post by Joe Simpson, Diary of a Tile Addict, April 2017.