Ceramic Tile Murals
• Tile-work can be seen everywhere, including hospital surgery rooms,
subway stations, kitchens and building facades.
• Tiles and tile-work have a long and rich decorative history that spans
all areas of the globe.
• Early decorative works date back as far as 4000 years.
New York Subway
Hallway
Building Facade Manhattan NY.
Florida
Kitchen
Design Inc.
Abby Church, Meraux
England 1249
•Tile-making was influenced by
movement along major land and sea
trade routes, which encouraged the
exchange of ideas and materials.
• Wars, political unrest, and religion
all played their part in the blending of
technologies, aesthetics, and cultural
influences in ceramic tile-making.
Palace of Persepolis
518 B.C.
Azulejo Mexico 17th
A.D.
Ishtar Gate Babylon 575 B.C.
Queen Philippa’s Apartment
Wiltshire England 1237
•Chinese Porcelains were introduced into Persia and the
West with far-reaching effects. Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618906)
• In order to imitate Chinese Porcelains, the Persians
first developed a white tin- based glaze to mask the red
clay, and then used a technique of applying oxides to
produce brightly colored intricate designs.
• This decorating technique spread throughout Europe,
Africa and later into the Americas. This process is now
called Majolica, Faïence or Delftware depending on the
region where it is made.
Yuan
Dynasty
14 A.D.
France,
1542
Persian Tile, 1266-67
Minai Type Bowl 1187 A.D.
Damascus 1550-97
•Throughout the Renaissance
and Post Renaissance Majolica
and other forms of tile work
flourished
Spain, 1929
France, 1542
Italy, early
Renaissance
Naples, 1742
•During the industrial revolution tile production and
decoration reflected the technological and socioeconomic changes in Europe
• The rising increase of the middle classes fueled the
decorative advances in ceramic tile.
Finland 1825
•Tile work experienced a heyday in
the Victorian period and Gothic
Revival of the late 1800s.
•Arts and Crafts artists like William
Morris and William De Morgan
created many designs for tiles.
Gothic
Revival
Tiles
Gijsbert De Graaaf 1765
William De Morgan 1888
William Morris 1876
•Émigrés from Europe brought commercial
tile production to the U. S.
William De Morgan 1888
• The Arts and
Crafts Movement
and tile-making
played a major
part in shaping
modern American
design.
Clay Craft Potteries 1921
Painted By Margret Thompson
1922
Hand made and fine art tile is still produced today for Utilitarian and decorative
use.
Motawi Tileworks
Motawi Tileworks
Pewabic
Pottery
Pewabic Pottery
Motawi Tileworks
Ascalon Studios NY,NY
•Many contemporary artists perpetuate
the history of tile by creating murals with
this malleable, permanent medium.
San Francisco Airport Mural
Blue Sky Center C.O.
Diana Faris
Diana Faris
Ann Agee, John
Michael Kohler
Arts Center
Richard Watts
Jean Rothschild
•Many school art programs undertake the lesson of creating tile murals for the
school building or other public spaces. Like no other project the public mural
helps students learn about collaboration and teamwork and is a unique all-school
experience where students, parents, faculty and administrators come together to
complete the project.
Lausanne Switzerland
Beth Hoke Vermillion High School
Vermillion High School
Scott Ansett Tacoma High School
Roseway Waldorf School, Zwalulu Natal South Africa
Canterbury School
Allisonville Elementary School
Kids in Clay Venice C.A.
Use with a high or low fire glaze on top underglazes are true to raw form and
intermixable just like traditional media. Expand the range of 2-D design work
on ceramics with chalks, pencils, watercolor pan sets and liquid form.
Richard Zakin:
Underglazes and Chalks
Noelle Hoover: Pencils
and Pan Sets
Chris Dance: Pencils and
Velvets
S. Pelletier: Pencils
Unknown: Chalks and Pencils
Ron Korczynski: GDCs over white
glaze
Linda Arbuckle: GDCs over white glaze
Carolina Pedraza: GDCs
over AMACO LG-11 White
glaze
Carol and Richard Selfridge:
GDCs over white glaze
David Stabley: GDCs over
AMACO White Arroya over DG-1
Black Lacquer glaze
Diana Faris: GDCs over AMACO HF-11 High Fire
White glaze
Noelle Hoover: GDCs over pre-glazed
commercial blue tile
Walter Ostram: GDCs over
AMACO LM-1 Black Matt glaze
Tile Project
• You will create a 5.5 x 5.5” tile about a
theme of your choice.
• You must have additive and subtractive
qualities
Developed to facilitate the process of Majolica decoration, this easy to
use and highly versatile medium is wonderfully suited to creating tile
murals. AMACO GDC series can be used as an underglaze, a glaze
alone, for Majolica overglaze decoration and even over commercial
preglazed tiles. ...
Colors can be intermixed like
paint and can be applied opaque
or thinned with water to achieve
watercolor affects
“1000 Tiles, Ten Centuries of Decorative Ceramics”
General editor: Gordon Lang, Contributors: Paul Atterbury,
Catherine Blake, Chris Blanchett, Douglas Girton, Riccardo
Sorani.
“Tile”, by Jill Herbers with Photographs by Roy Write
Resources:
Pewabic Pottery, Detoit, MI – www.pewabic.com
Motawi Tileworks, Ann Arbor, MI - www.motawi.com
Moravian Tileworks, Doylestown, PA - www.mptw.go.to
Tile Heritage Foundation - www.tileheritage.org
For information on products and technical
support go to: www.amaco.com