Decorative ceramic tile, custom hand made tile for unlimited possibilities

FAQs

All of our tiles are 100% handmade ceramic tiles that are made in the USA. Everything is 100% custom made at the time of the order, per our customers specifications.

ALL TILES ARE SHIPPED LOOSE...NOT Mesh MOUNTED!

Designers, Engineers, & Contractors

Everything is 100% custom, "yes", we make everything from scratch based on the customers unique specifications. Any size, shape, color, texture, and thickness. We use low fire clays for most residential floors and all walls, and medium/high fire clays for commercial purposes. Swimming pool tiles and shower floors are either stoneware or a porcelain-base. Porcelain is slightly more costly because it is twice the cost of other clay bases.

Please allow up to 8 weeks for orders. However, we're hoping with additional artists, we can take the turn time down to 2-3 weeks in the near future.

Preparation Process

Let me explain why it takes this long to prepare an order...first grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea, it's a little lengthy...first we start with the design, most of our artists take 3-10 hours to create a design. Once the design is finalized and approved, we start the tile process.

First we take a huge, 25 lb. block of wet, mid-fire clay. We cut a chunk off of it by hand and roll it through a slab roller to the required thickness. Then we trace the design onto the slab of clay and cut it out. Sometimes we have to make foam templates for numbers, etc. to raise them off of the tile surface for a slightly raised effect and for a neat appearance-much nicer than a plain flat tile.

The clay piece is transferred to a board and pressed until it dries. This can be anywhere from 3 days, up to 1 1/2 weeks. This process cannot be rushed or the piece will warp and crack, then we have to start all over again...I hate when that happens. During the drying process the tiles have to be rotated to dry boards daily.

Once the clay pieces are dry, they have to be shaped by hand because the clay shrinks and twists as it dries-anywhere from 8% up to 18% depending on the clay base used. Once they nicely fit together, they have to be tooled, wet-sponged smooth, loaded into the kilns, fired to 2000 degrees, and cooled for 2 days.

The clay turns into bisque during the firing process. This is the hardened state without a glaze color. The bisque has to be sponged again to remove any powder that was created during the clay firing and the kilns have to be vacuumed. Then the tile is hand-glazed with the color 3 times, the bottoms wiped off to remove any dripped glaze, loaded into the kiln again, fired to the appropriate temp, and cooled for an addition 2 days.

Once the tiles are complete, they must be rechecked again for proper fit and any glaze errors. They can actually get misshapen again during the glaze firing or a bit of dust can drop onto the glaze, ruining the tile. If they are perfect, then they have to be carefully packed between cardboard & bubble wrap, double-boxed, labeled, etc. for shipping. We then drive to town to take them to the P.O.

As you can see, it's a very time-consuming and exacting process. 

Ceramic Tile Leaves

The tiles are leaf-shaped, not square. Thus our slogan..."It's no longer hip to be square." We feel by eliminating the nasty horizontal and vertical lines caused by the grout lines, the overall appearance is more soothing to the eye. The grout actually becomes part of the design.

You can have the leaf tiles in pretty much any size, shape, color, finish, and thickness. You just need to either tell us your color palette, or send us paint store color swatches of your colors.

The process of installing the tiles is similar to a mosaic. You just arrange them as you see fit. We like to leave the design process up to our clients. Some people use round glass globs as filler tiles, others use stones, broken tile pieces (chards), or tiny leaves for backfill. The tiny leaves are more expensive ($85 PSF) than the $75 per square foot (PSF) cost because they are very tiny and tedious to prepare.

We can make corner motif's and trim for around the fireplace opening. Most people need those too, but it depends on the type of insert (if any).

Scenerio...if you have 10 linear feet of area to tile, you'll need to tell us the width. 4", 6", etc. That way we can better calculate the size and quanity of leaves, as well as the cost.

If you order, please indicate your custom specs (finish, size, thickness, etc.) as well if you have a leaf preference. Most people go for a mix of vegetation. :)

Ceramic Tile Medallions

We make all our medallion ceramic tile designs from scratch, based on your specific requirements. 

Basically what we do is finalize an order on a tile medallion, based on the customer's needs. Then I pass off the order to one of our very talented artists (or keep it myself) that will create a sketch of your medallion, and select the colors based on your requirements. I then send the sketch and color swatches back to the customer for their approval. Once approved, I enter the order into the artists work queue. We're currently running about 3-4 weeks to delivery.

We make each ceramic tile medallion design unique. They are based on $75 per square foot. The picture below is a sketch of a medallion is a 3x3 foot.  

The photograph below is of the medallion in progress. It is a 5' round. It contains approximately 23 square feet of tile. It costs 23 SF x $75 per square foot.

We can make medallions in ANY size, shape, color, and finish. You just need to tell us what elements you want in the medallion: nautical, birds, rocks, sundial arms, NSEW, frogs, turtles, leaves, etc. It's that simple. Then we create a rough drawing of the medallion for your approval.

More coming soon!