Snail Poo Tiles!
Young Dutch designer, Lieske Schreuder, feeds coloured paper to snails and then collects their vibrant-hued poo to make floor tiles Continue reading Snail Poo Tiles!
Tag: Diary of a Tile Addict
Nicole Nadeau’s Nipple Tiles
US artist Nicole Nadeau, best known for A New Wave (2006), Work of Art: The Next Great Artist (2010) and Road Rage (2016), has used one of her own breasts to create a mould for a collection of hexagonal tiles. Nadeau created a single mould of her breast to form the tiles, which are cast in ceramic and mounted onto solid-surface material Corian. Each tile … Continue reading Nicole Nadeau’s Nipple Tiles
Metallic Chic
Capturing the vogue for metallic effects in 2007. Steelwork by Ceramica Fioranese is a range that transforms ceramics into a shiny, vibrant material, sparkling with the glimmer of metal and its infinite warm and cold tones. The range interprets the colour and look of steel, silver and bronze, and even has traces of pure gold. This through-bodied porcelain range comes in bronzo, argento, acciaio, oro … Continue reading Metallic Chic
Looking Down on the Box
At Kitchen & Bathroom Expo 2005, RAK introduced Venus; the second new line of tiles and sanitaryware designed exclusively for RAK by celebrity designer Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. I interviewed interviewed Llewelyn-Bowen to find out more about this project and his take on ceramic tiles in general. Joe: To what extent is Venus your creation? LL-B: As a rule, I won’t put my name to anything unless … Continue reading Looking Down on the Box
There’s No Smoke Without Fire
Ten years ago art teacher Mark Aldridge decided to change careers, taking his art to the nation in the form of hand painted tiles. Then based in Stamford, Lincolnshire, the Fine Art graduate took on a small industrial unit and started from scratch; making the tiles by hand, decorating them with his own glazes, then completing them with fine drawings of flora and fauna before firing. Continue reading There’s No Smoke Without Fire
Waitrose Wall Art
Having met on a foundation course at art college in the Wirrall, tile makers Carlo Briscoe and Ed Dunn then plied their trade in London before relocating to Wales. There this artistic couple have refined their decorative style and won a loyal following from clients including Waitrose. Continue reading Waitrose Wall Art
Mosaic Roofscape
One of the most striking images at Cevisama 2005 was an array of 19 aluminium sunflowers carrying images of the eight prize-winning projects selected from the 50 that were submitted in the third Tile of Spain Awards competition. Continue reading Mosaic Roofscape
Aesthetic Sabotage
Over the years I have interviewed and profiled many well known designers and artists who work with tiles. None come close to Robert Dawson when it comes to artistic understanding of tile, or originality when it it comes to subverting what is generally perceived as “art” and “design”. Continue reading Aesthetic Sabotage
All Aboard!
Exeter-based manufacturer and distributor of tiles, Original Style converted a 1966 London Routemaster bus into a mobile showroom for its major Russian distributor. The iconic British symbol was used to tour cities in Russia, Ukraine and Latvia, as a providing a novel way to promote Original Style’s range of wall and floor tiles. Continue reading All Aboard!
Polychromie Architecturale
Too few marketing campaigns for new ceramic tile ranges really hit the target. Many are simply too flowery and pretentious. Others follow the herd and are light on differentiation. Most fail to identify and address a specific audience. But, every now and then, I come across a marketing idea that is well focused, coherent and relevant. Continue reading Polychromie Architecturale
Mosaic Muscle Car
As a journalist writing about the global tile industry I have visited many unusual locations and introduced me to many inspiring individuals, but few trips have made such an indelible impression as my visit to Salernes, southern France in 2007. Continue reading Mosaic Muscle Car
A Two-Dimensional Mind
The career of tile maker Bronwyn Williams-Ellis began with 3D design, working in ceramics. She completed a BA and an MA at the Cardiff College of Art and had her first workshop in North Wales where she created huge one-off sculptures and garden ware. But, Bronwyn eventually had a kind of eureka moment when she realised that her forte lay in two-dimensional design. Continue reading A Two-Dimensional Mind
You Gotta Fight For Your Right To Be Arty
The ‘Treatment Rooms’ is a privately owned house in West London currently having its exterior walls transformed by a collective of artists, who operate from it under the same name. In this post, I explore a remarkable example of public art and the message it transmits about the commodifiction of art. Continue reading You Gotta Fight For Your Right To Be Arty
Welcome To The World Of Tiles
Diary of a Tile Addict is intended to introduce tile enthusiasts to developments in tile design, significant architectural projects that use tiles creatively, technological developments that are driving the tile industry forward, news on tile exhibitions around the world as they happen, and also as a way to meet the many talented and inspiring individuals who together make the ceramic tile sector so creatively diverse, technically advanced and intellectually fascinating. Continue reading Welcome To The World Of Tiles