My preferred creative process is to react fearlessly, acting with quick succession to impulses, before any conscious decision-making can contaminate the object in the making. I experience conceptual processes as flawed, and prefer to be shocked by the new object myself. I will view my own creations as unfamiliar, with a love hate relationship, myself inquisitive, for not knowing the reason for creating it.

I am exhilarated when working against accepted wisdom. I invent and create as I go along and the surprise of what is happening in front of me quickly vanishes, as I assimilate the opportunities this new visual surface affords me.

The goal is to have a product coexisting in a client’s house, taking on a life of its own, shadowing conversation, creating dialogue, mirroring the personalities discussing it, and in so doing making your treasured environment warm and inviting. Your home should make you happy and your choices regarding original handmade objects will reflect the truthfulness and fragility of your lifestyle and individuality.

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Recently I read that trend watcher Li Edelkoort has predicted that people will create their own ‘museum houses’. These most avant-garde requirements, resulted in many professional architects, interior designers and individuals designing more individualized spaces and using tiles to fully portray the character of the homes in which the client can reconnect.

Southern Art Ceramic Design has adapted their output to create unique ceramic tiles and art that can be touched, seen and felt because it has shape, colour, gloss and volume, properties that are undoubtedly inherent to ceramic as opposed to other materials that simply cannot compete.

The ascendancy of chain store culture and global manufacturing has left us dressing, furnishing, and decorating alike. We are encouraged to be consumers, not producers, of our own culture. Our ties to the local and human sources of our goods have been eroded and possibly even lost. Buying handmade helps us reconnect and to express our identity and uniqueness. We will increasingly start living in individualized structures and among all kind of collections. Our collections of, for instance ceramic art, can make our house and ourselves stand out from the crowd. Instead of mass production, our clients want unique and hard to find objects.

The client using handmade tiles feels the satisfaction of supporting an artist or crafter directly, and receives a product, e.g. A custom tile panel behind the AGA, that is one-of-a-kind, and made with care and attention that can be seen and touched. As is the result of the absence of skill and craftsmanship in the world of large-scale manufacturing, one of a kind hand made items are a rare commodity.

Supporting small handmade design studios will make you happier in that you strike a small blow to the accumulating environmental effects of mass production, which are the major cause of global warming and the poisoning of our planet!

Visit http://www.mytile.co.za/ for some examples to get you inspired! The way in which you can assimilate myTILE into your individualized environment will be covered with all the different design elements, re. Colour, texture, matt or gloss, volume, shape, decorative design elements, etc

myTILE at Southern Art Ceramic Design is South Africa’s top ceramic tile design studio.

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Any person wants to hold onto a memory that is on a scale suitable to his or her own environment. Large and lavish architectural structures where all the attention to detail has gone into the structural design and finish, leave an environment devoid of hand crafted features like art tiles that the individual can relate to. Vineyards captured in picturesque environments, compete with others with similar vistas for their own identity, and as such desperately need to consider art tiles to enhance their brand and engage the visitor with historical or unique references.

The incorporation of custom creative art tiles uniquely made, of different proportions, will capture the attention and imagination and enhance the businesses brand because it is on an attainable scale.

At Fairview vineyards the design brief asked for delft style tiles incorporating some vineyard scenes and of course their trade mark, ‘THE GOATS’. The tiles were used at the cheese counter and attract constant attention. Just seeing the faces of clients that have visited Fairview, and then walking into our studio seeing similar tiles, speak a thousand words! This small item relates back to a special experience at Fairview and it is not forgotten!

Do you have a branded logo, that you want captured onto ceramic art tile? Classical or modern by inspiration, I can create the WOW factor!   

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 WE gave this mug as a gift, to our babysitter Heidi; who tends our animals when we are fortunate enough to travel. The hand painted image by Gillian is of Mei-Ling our Siamese, who will seldom allow you to cuddle her, demanding this only at a time that suits her, and not necessarily always from us! The spirit of something special is thus captured forever through the medium of ceramics, giving lasting joy to the beholder.

Helé painted this mug, of Zeus, a Weimmeraner, as a birthday gift for Anita, a very dear friend of ours. She had to part with her beloved dog, but hopefully this mug will be able to fill a little of the empty space he left, while Anita can but just imagine how Zeus now enjoys living on a farm, running around and being adored by his new owner.

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 At this house, build with baked bricks, over the past few decades some of the lower fired bricks have been eroded away.

My solution was to replace these bricks with some plain and some decorative glazed bricks. This wall can then develop its own character by choosing to capture memories, flowers, poems, decorative images or patterns.

This solution creates opportunities for walls, inside out outside, in homes or corporate structures, at restaurants, vineyards, or any other place where the owner or designer wants to create an endearing but unique atmosphere that the visitor or client can hold onto for future reference, something sadly missing in the contemporary interiors and exteriors of today.

I am sure that you will find a wall, floor, steps, windowsills, inside or outside that screams to become part of your personality and creative mission?  If so, visit http://www.mytile.co.za/ to find an art tile or contact us for a quote on that special design need you may have.

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 Do you have any suggestions with a plain herb garden?

At this house in Vermont the owners converted an old disused Koi pond into a veggie garden. Having ones own vegetable garden is a healthy way of knowing exactly what is going into the food you’re eating and with all the loving care and attention lavished onto this environment it will draw you and your friends outside for many a memorable moment.

With the use of glass tiles and some of our herb tiles they have created detail that adds to the homeliness of this outside room making this a prominent feature with interesting detail. 

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It is with great sadness that we decided to give Tess, our beloved Bouvier and dear companion, wings on the 14^th of February. Tess came to us as a 5 weeks old puppy over 11 years ago. She was an immediate hit, and was loved by all, having a wonderful temperament and soft nature.

We will miss Tess terribly. She leaves a huge gap in our hearts and lives.

As an artist, Gillian captured some memories, and the pain, using the ceramic medium.

One naturally tends to leave this visual expression to a time, when one feels the need to recall.

But capturing the character of ones pets, like the drawing by Stefan, my 8 years old nephew, of our Siamese, Mei-ling, brings a smile to ones face, even though she is still tormenting us with her demanding personality!

I feel for all who have experienced the severe void left after the departure of a dear companion, but through committing ones favourite or treasured memories to the clay medium they will live forever. Remember the special, alive and kicking companions around us too, in this way.

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Colour arouses the most universal appreciation, as one of the design elements to which we are the most sensitive. Coloured tiles have an instant appeal, which we are all attracted to. Millions of tourists keep flocking to cathedrals and mosques adorned with colour, attracted by the splendour and the immediate emotional reaction it stirs up.

Colour cycles are generated by industry and the print media to stimulate consumerism making one believe that specific colours are the fashion, and as such cloning certain fashionable trends. The average consumer today, lives in a world where colour gets rationalized, and the drive this past decade, to neutral stone colours had many people living in an emotional wasteland. This is one of the reasons why colour has burst forth in more permanent construction materials as seen with tiles. The use of décor items are an easy and temporary way of bringing colour into our environment, but I think that people will intuitively react to this more personal and permanent uptake in colour when using colour tiles.

Consumers or the type of client I prefer are those seeking more permanent solutions. They desire environments that are constructed and decorated using the products of their imaginations, tapping into the self, creating a home where they can be true to themselves and not be a total slave of consumerism. Passion drives us to be true to ourselves, to explore what really matters and to liberate the self.  Enriching their personal space with coloured and decorative tiles will never be ordinary but will feed the soul and bond friendships.

Colour and tiles will and can be one of the most expressive elements because its quality affects our emotions directly and immediately. The pleasing rhythms and harmonies of decorative coloured tiles will satisfy our aesthetic desires instinctively, and custom designed tiles will fire up the senses, and put you back in touch with your sensual side, reconnecting with the age old earthiness of firing clay, glazing the surface to enhance the abode, and at the same time render a practical durable surface.

The more confident South African architects and interior designers will embrace these new possibilities using colour with tiles, and in this rainbow nation of ours this new aesthetic trend, in which colour is re-emerging with a vital force, can transform any space into a personal space, that will endure, and instil a sense of homeliness, that is unique to you and not just another clone from a magazine.

The search is on to discover our roots and to engage with our environment and our cross-relationships with other cultures. Within this process we shall discover a new source of inspiration and innovation. Colour breaths new life into ceramic tiles, breathes new life into your Habitat.

Stop the clock and ponder this question; Which colour is your favourite, why and in what way do you relate to these colours? Go to your favourite room, fetch your clothes and question the colours in front of yourself.

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 If you are missing something in your kitchen, let our handmade tiles come to life behind your treasured Aga or Lacance stove, or around an open hearth with a chattering fire.

These very special hand made creamy off white herb tiles, with different herbs painted on them by Helé Oosthuizen, will create magic behind your stove in your dream kitchen. It will invite simplicity, clear your mind of worry and ultimately refresh your family’s spirits around the table.

The kitchen below belongs to Pricilla Torr, and these are some of her remarks.

The photographs you took are beautiful! Can’t quite believe it is our kitchen! Garden and Home phoned to ask if they could photograph it too and Di is due to come next week! Many thanks for helping us to make our kitchen a joy! So it is being much admired.

This kitchen features in the March issue of the South African Garden & Home magazine.

All these handmade tiles are hand manipulated to express special textures. The dialogue with the client included the custom matching of colour with that of the cupboards. The olives were painted in a similar colour as the Lacance stove.

Most of our kitchen panels are only installed after the successful installation and finishing of the kitchen cupboards. We usually design the panels according to the cad or architectural drawings provided, and will deliver on or before deadline so that the tiles can be installed before the heavy stoves are moved into place. At the time of commissioning the tiles, the clients are usually quite stressed as they reach fatigue with the progress of the building. We advise that you commission your tiles early, and to relax, because all buildings reach successful completion, and soon after you forget all of the past frustrations, and the dream home takes on a life and character of its own.

Pricilla Torr comments:

Our experience both with Twine Tiles and with Southern Art (both yourself and Gillian) was a real pleasure. Your advice was sound and the work was completed well within our timeframe. When we realized we had under-estimated the amount of tiles needed (cause of a design change) a lot of time and effort was spent matching the previous tiles and now you can barely tell the difference - in fact the slight change makes it look more individual and original. 

Our kitchen designed by Nicolwood was manufactured by the cabinetmaker, Peter Christie-Smith (Tel: 082-9385265). The builder, Pete Matthiae (021-7617238) employed the tiler.

I hope the above is informative and constructive, and I compliment all who were involved in the construction of this kitchen with its most harmonious atmosphere.

For more pictures visit this link.

We believe that these tiles can be adapted to compliment ultra modern kitchens, utilizing bright-saturated jewel-like glassy glazing techniques, but this we leave for another posting.

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If you look at ways of understanding, interpreting and questioning the possible identities in these faces, you will be embarking on a journey of discovery.

I am sure that the each discovery will be unique, specific to you, and that your choice of bringing this object into your home, will not only relate something about yourself but will become a conversation piece too. You may even find you’ll discover more about your friends, their personalities and what makes them tick through discussion!

You, as the viewer, are the only one who can converse with these faces, and will be evoking personal feelings. Forming your opinions through your memories, values and cultural identities by interacting with the images, and in acknowledging the questions and answers that may arise from your experience, a journey of self- discovery is begun.

By viewing these faces in a group, relating and sharing opinions together, it will enrich the viewers understanding of familiar and different personal and cultural experiences.

All these ceramic faces were made and painted by Gerrit Oosthuizen.

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