In May of 2009 I wrote a couple of posts about Natalie Blake's eye-popping decorative tiles. A division of Natalie Blake Studios called Unalun is making Blake's signature sgraffito tiles for Ann Sacks and a wide range of fully custom designs under their own name.
I'm drawn to this work as much today as I was a year ago. It's an amazing hybrid of the a appearance of a wood cut but in a sculptural form. It's amazing to see a hard surface that can be so soft and sinuous at the same time.
Natalie Blake's Unalun tiles get their appearance from draping wet clay over a shape and then etching it using a technique called sgraffito. That's Italian for "scratched." Here's a video that shows Blake's sgraffito technique in action.
Please visit the rest of the Unalun collection on their website and be sure to check them out on Ann Sacks' site too.
Natalie Blake uses sgraffito on her fine art as well, her interesting and compelling fine art. Spend the afternoon combing through her entire site. It's amazing stuff, all of it.
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