arts and crafts tiles, mission style tiles

Arts and crafts tiles

there are certain key characteristics of the craftsman era that are more prominent than others and one of the primary identifiers is the copious use of arts and crafts tiles in addition to the more utilitarian tiles often found in the bathroom area such as hexagon tile made of porcelain. Ceramic arts and crafts tiles were typically used around the fireplace area and may have been seen in the dining area or bathrooms as well. It was not uncommon to have monochrome or polychrome tiles featuring either geometric design, but even more likely nature oriented motifs such as pine cone and pine needles, various floral designs both somewhat realistic or alternately portrayed in abstract. It was not likely that all the tiles would be ornamented. Usually those were placed as an accent and the majority of tiles were unornamented and unadorned tiles, which were referred to as field tiles. Colors used were often desaturated and natural appearing earth tones. Among the favorite colors were a dark green and to a lesser extent blues, tans, and browns. It was out of the question for any arts and crafts tiles to show any gilding or other ostentatious looking decoration.

Hand made ceramic art tile are surprisingly thick, sometimes even as much as five eighths of an inch thick. Consequently, this needs to be thought about if attempting to mix their use with other more commercial tiles that are machine made, many of whom will have a completely different thickness. It may look good to have the mission style tiles project outward a little further than field tiles, but bear in mind that most of the sides of the tiles are usually unglazed so you'll need to ask yourself if that is going to create an acceptable look.

Mission style tiles time frame and display

Tiles are typically made to order and as a result there is a little time involved in construction, but it isn't too bad. Modern tile collectors often do not build tiles into the house structure, but rather display them individually in a tile easel or tile frame. For those with an extensive collection of mission style tiles it is common to rotate their display and keep some of them in storage so the look of the room changes with the seasons.