Glazed 35th Anniversary tile!

It's very exciting to work in clay - from idea, to creation, then drying the piece, firing it for the first time (bisque), glazing, and glaze firing....a long road to get to the finished piece. And some pieces get many glaze firings after the first. Whenever I make custom pieces I always make at least two extras to make sure that I get one that is perfect. So when I got the original tile that I made for our 35th Anniversary commemorative piece out of the glaze kiln.....perfect....I was very very pleased!!

Brushing glaze onto the tile - I chose one of my favorite glazes - our Azure blue gloss crackle.

The glaze has a touch of periwinkle tone to it.

Our glaze is a high boron glaze and the blue comes from adding a Mason stain at 1/2% to it. The stain has cobalt oxide as the colorant.

The finished, glazed tile

It measures about 5 11/16" square - a non-standard size...which makes sense to me......

A  long haul....but now we're headed towards 40 years!!

I had originally thought I'd add a detail of silver luster to the edge, but now that I see the glazed tile, I don't think that detail is needed.

What do you think??

I'll be posting sales of 35% off on particular items in my Etsy shop. Today's special is on my Roman Soldier Panel. Originally priced at $325.00, use coupon code 35YEARS to make it $211.25!!

Find the listing here -

https://www.etsy.com/listing/75571148/reproduction-victorian-tile-soldier-tile?ref=shop_home_active_4

You can find my tiles for sale on etsy here - lesperancetile.etsy.com
You can find my other social networking links here -
https://www.facebook.com/lesperancetile
https://twitter.com/lesperancetile
http://instagram.com/lellett

I'm making just 35 pieces of our Anniversary tile, all numbered on the back. Most of them will be going to family, friends, and honored customers...but I will save one for a give-away for one lucky person. Hey, it might be worth something someday!! :>)

Stay tuned for that contest before the end of next week.

Are you interested in having us create a commemorative tile for you? Please contact us at lestile@nycap.rr.com to talk!!

XX Linda@L'esperance Tile Works OO

Celebrating 35 years of making beautiful tiles!!

It's hard to believe, but it's true what they say....time flies when you love what you do!! I'm creating a commemorative tile to celebrate our 35 years in business, and I'm using the very first tile I ever carved for the brand new DBA - L'esperance Tile Works, in September of 1979. Here's the process.

My Daylily Tile 4x4 was the first decorative that I carved after the DBA for L'esperance Tile Works was filed, in downtown Troy, NY.

I had the mould pressed into a large slab of clay, and cleaned up the edges. I decided to make the 4x4 into a larger sized tile with lettering and a decorative swirled background.

I created lettering in photoshop and laid the image over the wet clay tile. Then I traced the lettering onto the clay with a ball point pen.

I created a border around the tile for ease in pressing the mould.

Here's the wet clay with the lettering and border images slightly impressed from the pen.

I'm adding a decorative swirl in the background of the commemorative tile.

Here's the finished added additions to the wet clay. I poured a plaster mould on top of this tile, and notated that it is the original carving on the back of the tile....recorded for posterity!

Here's the tile cut around the border and drying.

This tile will be bisqued in the next few days and glazed in a light blue crackle. Then I'll start pressing a limited number of tiles. I'll hand number 1 - 35 on the back of the first 35 pieces, creating a limited edition. I'll also add a gold luster border to make them even more special. Each of my family members will get one, along with a number of very special friends and highly valued customers who have followed us through the years. I'll also save one for a give-away....so stay tuned for the details before the end of September!

You can find my tiles for sale on etsy here - lesperancetile.etsy.com
You can find my other social networking links here -
https://www.facebook.com/lesperancetile
https://twitter.com/lesperancetile
http://instagram.com/lellett

The Martha Stewart Etsy Show - April 23, 2012

I had my 15 seconds of fame when I was an audience member at The Martha Stewart Etsy Show a few weeks ago. I received an e-mail invitation a few weeks before the scheduled taping from an Etsy administrator, and of course I said yes, thinking, there's got to be some free advertising here. Well, I sat in the top row on the side where no cameras can reach....so not so much on the free TV time....but it was fun and I got to meet some wonderful Etsy sellers.

Every audience member had a photo taken after the taping of the show. Here's mine!

Click here for the link to the photo from The Martha Stewart website.

We were told to arrive at 12:30, and not to be late...but when I showed up at 12:30 there was already a line at least 50 people long, and they had already admitted some into the building. It was a chilly, overcast day, but I made friends with Mary and Mary who were my buddies on line.

Don drove me down and he was in charge of the camera for the day, as I decided I probably wouldn't be taking photos once inside. This is his view from down the block - West 27th street between 7th & 8th.

Hmmmm......guess he's showing how tiny this sign really is.

We never left the studio until 4pm! Don and I decided we need to walk over the the Flat Iron district to find the wonderful pastry shop we discovered last time we were here a few months ago. Well...we couldn't find it but ended up in an excellent macaroon shop.

The excellent macaroon shop is Madeleine Patisserie at 132 West 23rd Street.

Here's a treasury I made of some of the sellers who were at the show.

Anatomy of a custom tile order

One of my favorite things to do is to work with enthusiastic customers on creating custom tiles for them. A lovely Etsy customer contacted me and asked if I could create a tile of her Etsy avatar which is a variation of a Hobo sign indicating that 'a good woman lives here'. Her project was to make an address sign for her sister, using other mosaic tiles to surround the cat tile. Carving in wax is a bit pricey, so I suggested a carved line that would be filled in with grout to highlight the image. All agreed and the project is a "Go"!

I printed out the image on a sheet of paper, grabbed a freshly made 4x4" tile, and jumped into the making process.

Laying the paper on top of the clay.

Using a pen to trace the design onto the clay surface.

Peeling off the paper to reveal the image on the clay.

Using a stylus to create a line deep enough to hold the grout.

Finished with creating the line. The clay is leatherhard and crumbles as the line is drawn in it. This needs to be cleaned up.

Brushing off all the clay crumbs.

After letting the tile dry a bit more I use a carving tool to smooth the lines a bit. Then I use a sponge to give it a nice clean finish.

Of course, I'd never get anything done without Abbey's help.

Abbey gives the finished tile her stamp of approval. My kitty digs this cat tile!

After the bisque firing the tiles are on the glaze table ready to be glazed. I use slip bottles to glaze the details, as I need to keep the grout lines clear of glaze, so the grout will stick in the lines.

I needed 2 tiles, so I made 3, just to have one to practice on, and just in case.....

I'm using high fire matte glazes, so they won't run into the lines. Now just to keep a steady hand!

This is a maize brown matte glaze. I'm using a cream matte for the other details, and the second tile will have the opposite glazing combination.

Glazing the cream details.

One of the glazed tiles before firing.

Here are the 3 glazed tiles in one of the tile cranks, on their way to the kilns for firing.

The finished tiles. I used a neutral brown grout to fill in the lines of the tile on the right, just so that I could see what it will look like after grouting. The customer will use a dark green grout, and I'm looking forward to seeing her finished project!

Have an idea for a custom tile? Send me a convo through my Etsy shop or email me at lestile@nycap.rr.com.

Autumn in the Northeast

Out my studio window

 Fall in upstate New York is a wonderfully colorful time of the year. Nature is slowing it's productive phase and getting ready for it's winter nap, but the oncoming chill always creates an excitement and anticipation of winter in me. It's the change I love so much.

We planted this sugar maple to celebrate Harry's 10th birthday...he just turned 21!

The milk weed seeds are ready to fly!

One of the things that fall ushers in is the celebration of Halloween, which I always have enjoyed. The costumes, the parties, the candy, the candy, the candy! I've been making small skeleton ornaments for a while now, and although they sell all year around in my Etsy shop, I especially like them this time of year.

Mrs. Fancy Skeleton

Skeleton Pirate Magnet

Fancy Skeleton with Tophat who wants to PARTY!

Enjoy the brilliant colors before they disappear!!

September Treasury Favorite - "My Dreams in Teal"

Here's a lovely treasury made by SilverLinesJewelry

 

Our Singing Tiles

We began making reproduction tiles many, many years ago. Customers wanted a white clay body with a crackle glaze, so I manipulated the glaze to not "fit" the clay body perfectly. The crazing in the original tile occurred over many years, but we needed ours to happen as the tiles cooled coming out of the kiln. Crazing happens because the glaze contracts more than the clay body does, creating tension between the two.

We never realized what happy music it would make!! We've even had customers call us with concern, that there is "singing" coming from their newly arrived boxes of tiles. They usually settled down before they are shipped, but the water that the tiles absorb during the setting process will also start the symphony in motion.



So there you have it....we are tile musicians!

Etsy Treasury Favorites

'Beautiful Spring' by HoodooRoots

Some pretty things for spring!

Vain Kiwi 6x6 Original ... shelbydillon $75.00	An Angel GoosebumpHotel $50.00
CELEDON, oil painting, ... paintingwell $	Robin 4x4 ins original ... VitecArt $60.00
SALE 20% Off August - L... MaiAutumn $28.00	Authentic Kate Spade To... belmodo $43.00
Yellow Pear on Lavender... paintedmoments $40.00	Forgotten Path - A Stud... vanderhoekart $50.00
Goose egg Pysanka with ... ukrainianeaste... $69.95	Vintage Sprinkling Can,... annmillerpaint... $18.00
Sheep with Blue and Yel... tilebyfire $	Karen Tarlton Original ... Karensfineart $175.00
I love my dog print jillmayberg $25.00	Afternoon Sail in an Eg... lesperancetile $40.00
Blue Rabbit margaretwoznia... $95.00	California Poppy Seeds Brookingham $1.85

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.