Artisan Tile Studio: Design Speaks
As I sat at my desk jotting down ideas for this article, a popular advertising slogan from the late 60’s popped into my mind. “You’ve come a long way, baby!” I smiled and nodded. I have come a long way. My industry has. And, so has my business.
My father was an extremely talented stone fabricator. In 2000, I began working with him in his business, watching him create beautiful countertops from slabs of earthly materials, turning visions into touchable pieces of functional artwork. He was an amazing craftsman.
Soon, I developed a keen interest in tile and was fascinated about its origins, its styles, and its composition. I discovered that for thousands of centuries, the tiles which had covered buildings, arches, roofs and walkways, walls, and floors were often blended with other forms of ceramics such as terracotta, metal, glass, and mosaic, or were composed entirely of those materials. What inspired me most was how these intricate, ornate, and one-of-a-kind tiles were all crafted by hand—the true definition of artisanship. I knew I had found my passion.
A few years after my father’s retirement in 2011, I opened Artisan Tile Studio. Working alongside talented interior designers who have strong vision and want something extra special for their clients, my dream to offer a unique and personalized service to meet their design goals grew even stronger.
Tile selections in Oklahoma at that time were extremely limited and often mass-produced, and I knew there had to be more out there. I began looking for new lines and discovered our industry had taken on wings and grown to unlimited possibilities. My quest was underway!
Today, Artisan Tile Studio proudly offers over 75 lines and is fortunate to work with some of the best artisans in the world—from California to Italy, Oregon to Morocco, Nashville to Spain, Wyoming to Mexico, and New York to points all over the globe. The true, handcrafted tile and custom design capabilities we now have available are only limited by one’s imagination. Here are three of my very favorites, exclusive to Artisan Tile Studio:
New Ravenna
Founded in 1992 by artist and designer Sara Baldwin, New Ravenna has the world’s most exquisite collection of handcrafted custom stone and glass mosaics for both home and commercial installations. From the small town of Exmore, on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, the New Ravenna team of over 100 artisans proudly creates and shares unique mosaics, including decorative borders, murals, field tile, and medallions. Through a collaboration with many talented artists and designers, their custom mosaics makes spaces feel beautiful, renewed, and connected through unique and transformative art pieces.
Every product from New Ravenna can be customized to meet the needs of any customer and design vision—tile can be tumbled, honed, or treated to create distinctive styles, subtle shade variations, and textures—resulting in a custom, one-of-a-kind work of art in mosaic tile.
Tiles of Ezra
Georgia Ezra, a visionary interior designer from Australia, was unable to find a tile range that would facilitate the needs of her design projects. Taking matters into her own hands, this treasure hunter and market maven at heart, searched the globe for inspiration and resources. She forged partnerships with artisan tile makers in Mexico, Morocco, and Vietnam to create Tiles of Ezra: exquisite mosaic tile designs filled with vivacious and exotic cultural references, driven by a mantra of promoting the sustainability of craftsmanship.
“We have always tried to articulate to our clients that when you are buying from Tiles of Ezra, you are not just buying a product. You are buying a handmade piece of work, which has passed through the hands of another person. An artisan who has a name, a family, and a story of his or her own,” Says Ezra.
Clay Daisies Tile Company
Kim Harper is the woman behind the tile at Clay Daisies. She is a self-taught potter and tile maker with a background in Interior Design, Architecture, and Art Education. Twenty years ago, she was asked by a client to create custom tile for a kitchen, and Kim’s dream was born.
She began her company in 2016, handmaking tile in her home studio, and now has sustainably crafted an amazing collection designed to stand the test of time, both visually and structurally. With an extensive color palette and countless shapes and sizes, Kim works alongside homeowners, designers, and architects to bring their visions to life with custom patterns and styles. And, in true artisan fashion, everything from Clay Daisies Tile is hand rolled, hand cut, and hand glazed. All clay and tile materials are repurposed: scrap is recycled to make trims and samples, and any tile that doesn’t pass quality control is donated to a local school for mosaic projects. I love that her standards are helping teach young students to continue this artisan craft.
photos by Kennon Bryce