Tiles

Glazes used: PC-59  PC-27

The goal for this assignment was to make a tile mold and then use the mold to make multiple tiles. How I made the mold is first I came up with a versatile design so that you could arrange them in a few different ways and it makes different designs. Then I made a single tile that I used to make the mold. After putting wood and securing the cracks with clay so the plaster wouldn't leak out. Then I put my prototype tile in the center of the 4 pieces of wood and poured the plaster in. Once the plaster dried I took the clay out and was able to push in clay to make a tile.

My tiles were inspired by old Italian-style tiles, my inspiration photos were all geometric which is why I chose to include triangles and oval-type shapes. And to incorporate an older feel I found two glazes that could be pained over each other to create this rustic deep brown and turquoise blue combination. Originally I wanted the tiles to be arranged in a certain way, for the more square shape in the corner to be the center, but once I made my final 4 tiles I tried arranging them in different ways. While doing this I found that I liked having the oval shape to be the center, which you can see in my final two pictures. I made an additional 2 tiles that I used to test glazes on, I tried two different color combinations before I found the PC-59 (brown) and PC-27 (turquoise).

I chose an old Italian style of tiles for my inspiration because I knew going into this project that I wanted my tiles to look classic and look like actual tiles that you could put down and use. I had a hard time coming up with the color scheme to use for my final four tiles, but eventually, after trying out a few different glazes on the two test tiles, I found two colors that gave that old Italian feel. Ultimately, I am proud of how my tiles turned out and how the design flows well with the colors. If I were to change something about my work I would try to smooth out the bottom of the sides of the tiles so they fit together a bit better.