Handmade Tile: Design, Create, and Install Custom Tiles

by Forrest Lesch-Middelton, Peter Pincus (Foreword by)

Overview

Handmade Tile is a contemporary guide for ceramic artists and anyone interested in custom tile installations—from making, designing, and decorating to designing your space and installation.

No matter how many years of experience you have as a ceramic artist or how many home-improvement projects you’ve tackled, nothing prepares you for the unique world of ceramic tile. From concept and design, through firing and installation, ceramic tiling is one of the few places in a home where art is permanently installed as a feature of a room.

In Handmade Tile, Forrest Lesch-Middelton shares everything he’s learned as the founder and owner of the custom tile business FLM Ceramics and Tile. From his years as a one-man operation to his current production facility, Forrest has seen it all and helps you every step of the way. Whether you want to make your own tile, or want to use artistic and custom-made tile in your home, this book has everything you need.

Key features of the book include:

• Making Tile: key tools, rolling, cutting, extruding
• Decorating: glazes, image transfer, cuerda seca, underglaze, slip
• Designing Your Space: tile in context, choosing your tile, codes and standards
• Installation: removing old tile, backing, preparing surfaces, setting, grouting

Galleries and interviews with today’s top workings artists in tile round out the package. Featured artists include Allison Bloom, Boris Aldridge, Disc Interiors, PV Tile, and more. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780760381229
Publisher:	Quarry Books
Publication date:	05/31/2022
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	471,912
Product dimensions:	7.95(w) x 10.35(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

Forrest Lesch-Middelton is the owner of FLM Ceramics and Tile in Petaluma, CA. His work has been widely featured, including the cover of Ceramics Monthly, The New York Times, Architectural Digest, and American Craft Magazine. In 2013, Ceramics Monthly and Ceramic Arts Daily chose Forrest as “The Ceramic Artist of the Year.” Forrest is the former president of The Association of Clay and Glass Artists, a graduate of Alfred University’s ceramics program as well as Utah State University’s MFA program, a former resident of Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts, a McKnight Fellow at Northern Clay Center, a recipient of the Creative Work Fund Grant, and former program director for Sonoma Community Center Ceramics. Forrest has taught at various Bay Area colleges and has lectured and demonstrated extensively throughout the United States, including workshops at The Penland School of Craft, The Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Syracuse University, Greenwich House Pottery, the California College of the Arts, and The Northern Clay Center.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Introduction
CHAPTER 1 | THE BASICS
Tile Throughout History
Understanding Tile
Types of Tile
Artist Feature: Boris Aldridge
CHAPTER 2 | MAKING TILE
Clay Considerations for Tile
Artist Feature: Bobby Silverman
Rolling Slabs for Tile by Hand
Rolling Slabs for Tile with a Slab Roller
Cutting Clay into Tiles
Extruding Tiles
Making a Tile Mold
Using a Tile Mold
CHAPTER 3 | SURFACE: GLAZE, DECORATION, AND FIRING TILE
Surface
Artist Feature: Gordon Bryan, Blue Slide Art Tile
Testing Your Clay and Glazes
Glazing
Applying Glaze
Decorative Ideas
Image Transfer: Printing on Clay
Artist Feature: Susanne Redfield, founder of Kibak Tile
Cuerda Seca (Dry Cord)
Plaster Transfer
Firing
CHAPTER 4 | DESIGNING YOUR SPACE
Artist Feature: David Dick and Krista Schrock, DISC Interiors
Understanding Tile in the Context of Your Home
Designing with Tile
Artist Feature: Allison Dehn Bloom
Choosing Your Tile
Measuring a Space for Tile
CHAPTER 5 | INSTALLATION
Do it Yourself?
Removing Old Tile
Backing and Preparing the Subfloor
Setting the Tile
Artist Feature: Paul Vyenielo, PV Tile
Grouting your Tile
Final Sealing
Recipes
Resources
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Index
 

Editorial Reviews

This book is a must-have for anyone with an interest in handmade ceramic tile, either as a maker or a designer. Forrest generously shares his years of experience gained from both the art and design worlds and covers it all, from detailed making to installation, and all the considerations from start to finish.—Lesley Baker, associate professor, Rhode Island School of Art and Design

I couldn't be more excited about this book, a tell-all from the master tile maker. I have the privilege of calling Forrest a friend…now I can call him my teacher. In this book, he answered all my questions on how to make tiles.—Paul Blaise, host of The Potters Cast podcast

To see this process firsthand and understand how Forrest’s work as a potter informs the choices he makes in his tile — from pattern to palette — has introduced me to a new avenue for artistic collaboration.—Ginny Hautau, owner of Urban Cowgirl Art and Design, Corrales, NM

From the Publisher