Mother of pearl wall tile

I've had a run on interest in mother of pearl wall tile in the last week and I have to say that the stuff's stunning, really stunning. Check out this wall tile installation from the great folks at Maya Romanoff.

I have some samples of it and even have a back splash done in it in the showroom. I swear, it can stop traffic it's so distinctive. But that's in a kitchen showroom, not in a real house. So I'm wondering if anyone out there has any first-hand experience with mother of pearl as a tile?

Mother of pearl is made from a material called nacre, and nacre is secreted in the shell linings of certain mollusks. Nacre is also the substance pearls are made from and like a pearl, mother of pearl has a colorful iridescence and a depth to it. Nacre has captivated human imaginations since the dawn of time.

Beautiful stuff but I wonder how it holds up as a building material. Nacre is an organic and inorganic compound. It's made from alternating layers of calcium carbonate and any one of a number of biopolymers. The precise biopolymer is a function of the organism secreting it. Still with me? Now this microscopic layering is where nacre gets its depth, iridescence and strength. The combination of calcium carbonate and a biopolymer serve an organism well while it's alive. However, calcium carbonate and biopolymers break down after the secreting organism dies. In a protected environment, nacre will remain beautiful for generations. What happens though ,when it's exposed to the wear and tear of daily life?

So, anyone? Anyone? Anyone have some first hand experience to share?

Stunning mosaics from Natalie Blake Studios

Brattleboro, Vermont-based artist Natalie Blake makes tile unlike any other I've seen. Her work is beautiful and evocative at the same time. The soothing, sinuous shapes and textures of her wall-hung mosaics draw attention to themselves without shouting. The stories they tell are purposefully incomplete. Her work requires an observer to fill in the blanks and connect the dots. It's observational, conversational, participational art. Brilliant, beautiful work; all of it. Natalie Blake has a collection coming in June from Ann Sacks. Stay tuned next month and we'll take a look at it. In the meantime, take a stroll through her website, Natalie Blake Studios.

Cool new mosaic blends

Aston Smith is a kitchen designer based in greater New York. I follow her on Twitter and yesterday she posted a link to Susan Jablon Mosaics. I'm an easy sell though, just mention the word "mosaic" and I'm all yours.

However, nothing prepared me for the selections available from Susan Jablon. If you can imagine it as a mosaic, Susan Jablon Mosaics either has it or will find it. Wow.

Best of all, they have a custom blend tool on their website. I made the three mosaic blends on this post about a half an hour ago. Not only can you make blends to your heart's delight, their custom blend tool prices as you work. Using it, you can see the square foot cost of the fruits of your imagination. You can even buy single, square foot samples. Susan Jablon, where have you been all my life?! Bravo! Don't believe me? Go play around with that blend tool. You'll be hooked.

Check out Hakatai's revamped website

I've waxed rhapsodically about Hakatai's great glass tile a couple of times here and I was researching mosaics for a job the other day and found myself on their website again. Man, nobody, and I mean nobody shows mosaic tile as well as Hakatai does. All of the photos I have scattered around this posting come from their website.

Hakatai is a one stop shop for all things related to mosaic tile. Their retail prices are what I'm used to seeing as wholesale prices. This means that Hakatai is a great place to buy your own materials and save some money.

Hakatai's photo galleries have to be the most extensive on the web. If you're ever in need of some inspiration or if you've ever wondered how to use glass tile, spend some time combing through that photo library. 

Hakatai does a lot of custom work too and you can order their custom work through their website. Amazing. In looking through their custom mosaic library I'm struck by the amount of skill that goes into their murals in particular. Mosaic murals are an ancient art form and the gang at Hakatai pays homage to the ancients and then ratchets up the bar a couple of notches. Beautiful stuff, all of it.

Check out their home page for special deals and sale items too. Thinking about glass tile? Look no further.

It's a sign of the times my friends

Well you know times is hard when you get an Ann Sacks e-mail newsletter that mentions anything about prices. This month's arrived with something so far beyond the mention of price I had to make sure that it was indeed from Ann Sacks. Well it was and it's true. All is woe after all. Ann Sacks has three styles of wall tile that start at less than $10 a square foot.

Avalon II --2" x 19 1/2" field in beige and 4 1/8" x 19 1/2" field in cocoa

Avalon II --2" x 19 1/2" field in black and white

Hacienda --3" x 4- 3/4" diamond in Normandy cream

Hacienda --3" x 4" San Felipe in café olay

Savoy --3/4" penny round in brick

Savoy --stacked brick mosaic in silkscreen

Savoy --3-7/8" x 3-7/8" field, offset brick and surface bullnose in paperwhite and box liner in black gloss

Savoy --offset brick mosaic in mint

Savoy --stacked mosaic and 3 7/8" x 7 3/4" field in bronze

Hakatai's having a sale

Hakatai is a great source for mosaic tile for the trade and also for individuals in the market for some off the beaten path stuff. Got a project in mind? Spend some time with the fine folks at Hakatai before you make any decisions. Hakatai's custom blends blends are currently on sale for 30% off and they're offering up to 45% off on their Classic series.

Hakatai's website has two great planning and playing tools anyone can use to design his or her own custom blends and gradients. While you're playing around with the colors in your dream shower or backsplash, Hakatai's working in the background and pricing everything as you go. Scattered around this posting are some blends I whipped out with their blend tool the other day. Pretty cool stuff and far more reasonable than you'd expect. No one has to settle for cookie cutter solutions. Ever. Remember that.

Hakatai does some really exquisite custom mural and mosaic work and their website has a gallery filled with hundreds of photos of their work. Look through their galleries and see for yourself what's possible. Bravo!

Made a Mano makes my head spin

Last week, I wrote about an author in Berlin and his amazing mosaic bathrooms. Christophe Niemann and I corresponded a bit and he sent me a link to an Italian website called Made a Mano. Niemann told me that if he had unlimited funds, he would have tiled his bathrooms with the offerings of Made a Mano instead of the 4x4s I was so enamored with. I clicked on his link and knew immediately what he was talking about.

This is Mount Etna in Sicily.

Mount Etna has been erupting for thousands of years and is hands-down the most active volcano on the planet. Over the millennia, vast amounts of basaltic lava have solidified on its flanks.

Made a Mano takes this solidified lava and makes glazed tiles, glazed counters and sinks. Made a Mano also powders it to make a low-fire clay they call Cotto.

Unfortunately, Made a Mano doesn't yet have a US distributor. But I can dream, can't I?

So I was going through their website and trying to contain myself when I came across this tile:

That pattern looked strangely familiar. And then it hit me. I'd seen the same pattern on a floor in Pompeii.

So far as I'm concerned, everything can be traced back to the Romans. Made a Mano gained a lifetime fan with the inclusion of that pattern, let me tell you.

I'm insane for this stuff. Check out these tile patterns.

Now bear in mind that these things are hand-painted on glazed stone. Just beautiful.

But that's not all. They get involved in floors too. Take that Pyrolave!

They make counters and sinks too.

Beautiful, all of it. Check out Made a Mano's website and drool. Now, I just have to find a way to get my hands on their stuff.

A whole new take on bathroom mosaics

Christoph Niemann is a former New Yorker and now Berlin-based artist who writes a blog for the New York Times. Niemann's Abstract City is always an interesting read. He talks a lot about his family and their transition to living in Germany. In a post he wrote in August, he talked about his bathroom renovation project.

According to Niemann, he'd always had a dream of doing abstract pixel drawings of masterworks using nothing but colored 4x4 ceramic tile. 4x4 is the default size for bath tile and it's something I chase people away from under normal circumstances. After having seen Niemann's handiwork, I doubt I'll be so quick to dismiss the stuff anymore.

Check this out. Here are two David Hockneys. And next to each is how Niemann interpreted them in 4x4s.

In some kind of a play for my sympathies, he took on a Rothko and it has me swooning.

Now, he's using layout software to draw a grid and then he's assigning each square a color from a palette. I'm really floored by what he did here. I mean, who could imagine taking boring old 4x4s and turning them into this? Certainly not I.

So after playing around for a while, he settled on a Warhol.

Using Andy Warhol, who was himself doing an homage, in a bathroom makes prefect sense and here's the shower stall he ended up with.

I have never seen anything like this. I'm used to looking forward at new stuff that's coming down the pike, I never think to stop and re-evaluate what's already here. These tiles are everywhere and he probably paid a dime apiece for them. I go through my normal working life thinking that wall tile that costs $35 a square foot is cheap. 4x4 ceramic is so far below my radar that I can't even see it. Pardon me, my paradigm just shifted.

So with the master bath done, Niemann turned his attention to the bathroom shared by his three sons. He relates that his sons are obsessed with the New York subway system, so he turned his interpreting skills to an MTA map.

His plan was to tile the entire bathroom, so he imported his layouts into a 3-D renderer.

So with his layout rendered, all that was left to do was install the tile. Check this out:

Mr. Niemann, I owe you a thank you. Several thank yous actually. I read the New York Times every day because I like to stay informed and I believe that the Times keeps my horizons expanded. Sometimes, and this is one of those times, they get expanded so far I don't recognize them anymore. Wow.