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A client surprised me a while ago with this brilliant idea!

He bought two sets of seven, one with red and gold and the other with blue and gold, to use as inserts with his travertine tiles. The idea was to cut squares into the travertine and then to use “press stick” to adhere the tiles. After grouting the tiles it will present as being permanent but in actual fact his idea was to remove them again, replacing them with the next set of tiles!

The tiles were similar to these 100 x 100mm tiles.

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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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 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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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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