Summer is always a busy time of year. With the kids home most of the day during the summer months, it’s sometimes hard to be productive in the studio. That said, I’ve actually been getting stuff done at night.

Between working on my new studio space, making stamps and vessels, and exploring new glazes, it’s been about two years since I designed a new tessellation tile. It’s probably my favorite thing to make in clay and I’ve really missed it. So the past few weeks I’ve focus on two new designs.

It’s a pretty slow process to produce a new tile. First, I start with a sketch. Then I create a blank version of the tile and make a mold of this blank. When the mold dries, I press a blank tile and carve detail into it to make a new tile. I then make a new mold of the detailed tile. When this mold dries, I’m ready to make multiples. I use the blank tiles to make edge pieces rather than slicing up a detailed tile. More photos to come…