We’ve taken a look at various surfaces made from unusual materials – notably tiles from salt created by Chilean architect Mále Uribe Forés, sunflower surfaces from Thomas Vailly, and algae infused tiles from the Bio-Integrated Design Lab – and today we’re sharing something that utilises all three – Frank Gehry’s tower for the Luma Foundation in Arles. The project’s innovative material use is designed to … Continue reading Sunflowers, Salt, and Seaweed
Creator, painter, illustrator, seamstress, stylist, and decorator Maude Smith has her fingers in a lot of pies. Thankfully for us one of those pies is tile design. At Maude Made three distinct categories separate hundreds of delicately detailed drawings transfer printed onto tiles – botanical, blue, and red. Flowers, seaweed, butterflies, snails, leaves, frogs, and ducks are just a few of the features in the … Continue reading Maude Made’s Many Motifs
We’ve collected all the recycled plastic tiles here, and all the unusual reclaimed material surfaces we know of here, and now we’ve combined the two with a collection of five tiles made from a whole host of waste materials. Continue reading Five tiles made from reclaimed materials
Inspired by 19th century cement tiles, Harmony‘s Varadero is a geometric delight. Taking a few hints from traditional Cuban designs (and taking its name from a Cuban town), the simple repetitive motif is light, delicate, and decorative. In a 198 by 228mm hexagon, Varadero finds variety in its five colourways. Moonlight’s off-white offers sophistication with it’s subtlety. Grey makes a point of neutrality whilst Rose … Continue reading Va-va-varadero
Trend content alert! Following on from 2022 colour predictions from Sherwin-Williams we have some full-blown tiling trends collected from Crossville. These four main areas have been highlighted by Crossville’s Vice President of Marketing Lindsey Waldrep to give us a little look at what’s hot and getting hotter. Bright and Bold Over the past few years we’ve had colour explosions, maximalism, and mix and match patterns, … Continue reading Crossville Collects Interior Trends
There is no end to the amount of incredible tiles out there. It seems as if each day we are finding something or someone new, and its almost always worth sharing. And today we’ve got our eye on another company. Based in Minneapolis, Clay Squared‘s artist hub creates a range of handmade tiles in all sorts of shapes and sizes, patterns and glazes, as well … Continue reading Clay Squared to Infinity
A curious contraption aims to reduce plastic waste by eliminating complexity. Two units (one 40ft container housing the processing line and one 20ft solar cell unit) make up a recycling line capable of upcyling up to 50kg of waste each hour. This system, known as Trashpresso, takes three simple steps to transform plastic bottles into tiles: size-reduction, purification, and reshaping. Firstly the machine shreds plastic … Continue reading Trashpresso
Following on from FUGA, Studio Irvine offers another curious combination of fluidity and rigidity. Blending the two, the designers create a surface that can adapt to any location with a look that is not quite tile, but not quite anything else. Exit’s modular system is comprised of pointed arrow forms in either yellow, red, or grey terracotta. Between each of these elements sits the raw … Continue reading Elegant Exit
Spending hours and hours on Instagram, trawling through countless designs, interiors, and artworks, it’s always a welcome sight to find something truly weird and wonderful. And that’s exactly what we stumbled across with the work of Angela Evans. Although much of her tile art leans towards 3D fruits and vegetables, perfect for kitchen decor, there is one collection in particular that couldn’t help but tickle … Continue reading Amoeba Tiles
Encouraging community with their Buy Back Program and creating unique products from inevitable waste, skater craftsmen in the USA are filling a fine niche. Deckstool, founded by brothers Jason and Adam Podlaski, takes used and broken skateboards and gives them a whole new life. With their Broken Skateboard Buy Back Program the company ensures a steady supply of materials whilst partnering with skate shops and … Continue reading Skate or Design
We’re big fans of kintsugi – the famous Japanese art of reclaiming the beauty of the broken by highlighting cracks and repairs in gold – not only for its lovely looks, but for the way it encourages the process of mending (especially in ceramics) and emphasises the charm of the imperfect. We’ve previously covered one company’s rendition of golden repair (Wow Design’s Kintsugi) and today … Continue reading Kintsugi Collection
Finally we’ve got some more trend content headed your way! Coming in hot for 2022, Sherwin-Williams has curated MODE, four familes of forecasted colour. A total of 40 colours make up the palettes (Method, Opus, Dreamland, and Ephemera) with each representing the touches of luxury that colour can offer. Method Warm, earthy oranges and yellows, browns, and creamy whites have been carefully selected to “balance … Continue reading Sherwin-Williams predicts 2022 tones
Our last company for the week is another gem from America. Founded in 1986, Whistling Frog is the creation of artist Rick Pruckler. With previous experience in mural installations and the art of ceramics, Whilstling Frog came about as means to let Pruckler’s creativity run riot. Forming custom glazes and variety of tile making techniques, pieces incorporating elements of nature and stark contrasts began to … Continue reading Whilstling Frog
Our next company hails from Spain. The craftsmen of todobarro are an artisanal outfit dedicated to keeping traditions alive, making each tile to order and forming them all by hand. Specialising in terracotta, stunning shapes and earthy shades make up the majority of their collections. Their seven tones (Blanco Antiguo, Baraca, Ambar, Pizarra, Rojiza, Salmón, and Paja flameada) each offer the delicious variety of classic … Continue reading todobarro
For our third installment of the week we’re looking at a company we have mentioned very briefly before in Doggy Décor. But now they’ll get all the attention they deserve as we take a closer look, and formally introduce you to Arto Brick. The company’s founder Arto Alajian was born in Alexandria, Egypt and classically trained in the arts. When the Egyptian revolution began Arto … Continue reading Arto Brick
Bestile has a large collection catalogue covering many styles and finishes so we’ve selected a few of their more curious ranges to share today. Afra: A mysterious mix-and-match collection, Afra makes the most of glaze to highlight motifs and the varied shapes and styles the range utilises. At 225 by 225mm, matt grey and dark metallic gold mix together in geometric patterns and futuristic designs. … Continue reading A bit of Bestile
Continuing our week of wonder, celebrating companies in all their varied glory, we have an Australian company – Jatana Interiors. A love of colour and design began after founder Sonya Marish’s travels through Asia and the Middle East. What initially started as a hunt for unique treasures became income after Marish strated a market stall in Sydney to sell globally-sourced goodies. Later, a desire to … Continue reading Jatana Interiors
If you read us regularly you’ll know all about our company collection posts that share five companies to keep an eye on. But there are too many for our once-a-month posts to keep up with so this week we are bringing you a new company each day. Monday to Friday we’ll be sharing some wonderfully exciting creatives and brands and we hope you love them … Continue reading Kibak Tiles
With so many gifted mosaic artists about it’s extremely difficult to decide who and what to share whilst maintaining a varied stream of tile-related information and avoiding becoming Diary of a Mosaic Addict. But one artist in particular has piqued our interest recently – Gila Rayberg. Trawling through Instagram to satisfy our ever-present hunger for ceramic curiosities we came across Gila Mosaics and were immediately … Continue reading Gaga for Gila
The little imperfect touches of Novoceram‘s Bohème offer a compromise between traditional cement tiles and modern manufacturing processes. Rather than utilise the classic patterned metal masks filled in making cement tiles, stencils are used in their place. Designs drawn to create motifs of all kinds maintain the charm of artisanally crafted cement tiles with distinctive details. Geometric, minimalist, and decorative patterns make up the selection … Continue reading Bohème Beauty
