By Guest Blogger and Fireclay Tile customer Tricia Creason-Valencia

We are proud first-time homeowners of a charming 100-year old house. When we bought the property, it was an abandoned foreclosure that simply needed a good cleaning and a fresh coat of paint on the inside. The exterior, on the other hand, needed a major makeover. We spent days clearing out debris and overgrowth in the yard, rebuilt the back fence, and began filling a three-ring binder with ideas for “Do-It-Yourself” home improvement projects and a detailed plan for our dream California native garden. 

As a visual artist, the project that most excited me was tiling the front steps. I’d heard about the Fireclay Tile “Boneyard” sale since I moved to San Jose five years ago, but this year my heart leaped when I saw the article in the San Jose Mercury News. I tapped the page excitedly and declared “We have to go to this tile sale, TODAY!” Luckily for me, my mother, a DIY home improvement expert, was visiting us and eager to come along as my consultant. The long Labor Day weekend stretched out ahead of us during which we could execute our plan. The goal was steps with beautiful Cuerda Seca tiles.

We took some quick measurements (not surprisingly, 100-year old steps are not uniform in shape or size) and headed out to the Boneyard sale equipped with our scribbled notes. Once we arrived at the sale, we called my husband, Hugh, to verify our measurements; the artistic endeavor of tiling involves a lot of math!

The sheer quantity of tiles in the Boneyard was both overwhelming and thrilling—the hunt was on! Over the next 4 hours, my mom and I laid out various patterns, taking care to balance my desire for beauty and my need for low-cost options. We worked and reworked our design ideas and came up with a pattern made from 60% recycled material tiles that was elegant, unique and economical. I figure I saved about 75% by buying the tiles at the Boneyard Sale.

Our installation process was a family affair. My mom and stepdad served as our mentors. Although they had lots of experience tiling tables, they warned us that they had not done vertical tiling before.

My six-year old daughter helped with the touch up painting of the stoop and sealed the grout as we finished. 

The combination of my parents’ coaching, my interest in learning the relatively simple but painstaking tiling process and the entire family’s commitment to doing-it-ourselves resulted in a super snazzy “curb appeal” upgrade to our home. 

AFTER

Link to my filmmaking website: http://www.flacafilms.com

By Amie Johnson

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve helped customers in the showroom that want to use our Debris Series Recycled Tile and Vitrail Series Handmade Tile colors together. It happens so often because when you come into our San JoseFactory Showroom and you make it back to the hallway of colors, its quite overwhelming. Most people get so excited at their choices of 224 different colors and what they don’t realize, unless they’ve already been told, is that the left side of the hallway is Vitrail and the other side is Debris. So they pick out all of their colors and ask for design help. Oops...now they are dead set on using these colors.

So first off, our Debris and Vitrail clay bodies are different sizes which can put a kink in your design. The reason for the different sizes is simply because the Debris Series tiles contain recycled post consumer glass and when they are fired the glass expands, thus causing the clay body to expand. So the Debris Series tiles tend to be a tad larger. So my suggestions are always to use either the Vitrail or the Debris for the field and to use the other for the decorative element in your design in a different size. Then, take your color selections home and look at them in the lighting they will be going in because as you can see, the colors give a different feel in different lighting.

Debris Series - Merlot, Debris Series - Peabody, Debris Seires - Lichen and Vitrail Series - Tarragon

When you’ve narrowed down the colors, pick out a few decorative pieces to finish off your design. As you can see in the picture the boldness of Debris colors compliment the high crackle beauty of the Vitrail colors.

So now you’ve incorporated both clay bodies, have a beautiful “green” design as your backsplash and you still got to use the colors you LOVED! So be creative with our tiles and if you need help with that, then you can turn to us color specialists here at Fireclay Tile and we’ll help you design a timeless backsplash using all of your ideas.

Two Exciting Mosaic Classes In September at Fireclay TIle's San Jose Factory Showroom

Since the Spring Fireclay Tile has been offering some really fun mosaic classes led by mosaic artist Delaine Hackney. To date over 35 local aspiring artists have enjoyed these fun and active workshops.

In September Delaine is offering two great classes on Garden Mosaics and Pet Portraiture. Come check out what the San Jose Mercury News called . All supplies and materials are included, and each participant will recieve 10% off any Fireclay Tile Boneyard purchase. To register just email Delaine at delaine@delainemosaic.com.

Garden Mosaic Class - September 11 - 10:15 - 3 PM - $80 per person

Pet Portraiture Mosaic Class - September 18, 25 and October 2 - 10:15 - 2:15 PM - $130 per person

New Glaze Color Pages for Debris Series Recycled Tile and Vitrail Series Handmade Tile

Recently the Ceramicists at Fireclay have been talking a lot about glaze color variation and how it impacts our fired ceramic tiles. Our recent blog post on The True Beauty of Color Variation in Fireclay Tile was meant to educate customers about the beauty of color varation and describe the mechanics of how it happens, and today we take the next step to actually showing you color variation and how it impacts each of our colors.

For our main two types of ceramic tile, the Debris Series Recycled Tile and Vitrail Series Handmade Tile today we launch BRAND NEW glaze color pages that show individual images of each of our colors, reflecting the potential rang of variation for each.

We invite you to click the respective color below to be taken to a world of color and wonder! Enjoy!

Debris Series Sea Blue	Vitrail Series Kiwi

Wnat to experience Fireclay Tile first hand? Check out a free sample pack!

My First Time Designing a Kitchen Backsplash with Fireclay Tile

By Eric Edelson, Fireclay's Business Guy

As one of the owners of Fireclay Tile and the person responsible for day-to-day operations, finance, marketing, etc, I rarely get the opportunity to work with customers on a one-on-one level. Many of our staff encourage me to do so, yet designing with tile, much less something as beautiful and unique as Fireclay's, is not something I am used to. I can barely pick out what to wear on any given day and generally defer to jeans and a polo. But yesterday I was fortunate enough to be in our San Jose Factory Showroom when a couple, Joelle and Chris Hamming (Elk Grove, CA), visited to discuss their kitchen counters and backsplash.

The Hammings were the runners up in the 2009 California Go Solar Sweepstakes, and one of their prizes was $5,000 of Fireclay Tile merchandise, including a BottleStone countertop and kitchen backsplash. They told me they also received 40 hours of design help from a designer, as well as furniture and other home goods - quite a win if you ask me!

Unfortunately, the Hammings had a challenging design process with their designer, and like we hear from so many customers, the designer failed to really listen to what the client wanted and instead presented what the designer wanted. When the Hammings arrived at Fireclay yesterday, after several months of trying to work with a designer, they were still at square one and were not entirely sure what they wanted to do.

Our showroom was packed when they arrived so the only person available to work with them was me. As I told them I was pretty much clueless when it came to design, but they were ok with that, so it seemed like a perfect fit. I was thrilled with how nice they were, their open attitude, and their willingness to be adventurous when it came to thinking about their kitchen.

We first set out to pick a backsplash pattern. Joelle thought they wanted a subway tile look, but Chris wanted something a bit more unique. I took them over to our design concept wall (shown below) and together they set their eyes on a blend pattern featuring our Debris Series Recycled Tile in gobi, pampas grass, and demistasse.

Like I said, though, they wanted a subway look, not a pinwheel as shown in this photo above, and they wanted something unique. Fortunately for them, at Fireclay we offer all of our colors in almost every size and shape imaginable. They looked at 3x6, 2x6, but ultimately decided on a very cool look with long 2x8 planks of the various colors. We laid out the pattern in those sizes, and being able to visualize it right there helped the Hammings realize that 3 colors were too much. They still had their sites set on a 3rd color, but wanted to  minimize the demitasse just like it was done on the pinwheel board. I showed them some decorative pieces from our catalog, and soon they had settled on a 2x2 Snowflake in demitasse that they would put in various places throughout the backsplash.

Watching them look at all of the design concepts, I was thrilled to see their imagination run wild but to ultimately settle on combining a few aspects from each. For those who can't see these in person, we actually post them online under design concepts for both our Debris Series Recycled Tile and Vitrail Series Handmade Tile.

And to help them think through sizes, shapes ,and decorative tile options, they referred to our catalog, which we post on the bottom right corner of the Fireclay Tile homepage or under Sizes and Shapes within the product listing of any of our Debris, Vitrail, Claymonde, or Express products. While talking through size options, it also became clear that Chris didn't know much about our company and our history or commitment to sustainability, or how our Debris Series features over 60% recycled materials all sourced locally from the Bay Area from other companies' and peoples' waste streams. As I told him about it, I could see him perk up and get more excited, and that's before even showing him the video on how we make our tile!

So, literally 30 minutes later we were done. And best part of all ... they had done it all themselves! I was merely a bystander, fetching product as they needed it. The key things for them in thinking through the backsplash were:

- basic pattern = subway, inspired by friends and magazines

- basic colors = pampas grass, gobi, and demitasse, inspired by a Tile Design Concept Board

- refined shapes and sizes and decoratives, inspired by our enormous catalog and tile offering

We next turned back to the countertop, as that is definitely necessary to think through as you are considering your backsplash. In fact, you should prioritize the countertop when thinking about designing a tile kitchen backsplash. Fireclay designed BottleStone in 2007, and we were fortunate to receive funding from the State of California CalRecycle Division to further develop this product. The Hammings had won a BottleStone countertop, but since we are still developing it we couldn't guarantee them it would be ready. They were going for the Mocha color whch would be a great fit with the pattern they decided on, but I also made sure they picked out a tile countertop option just in case. After calling in the experts for color consultation, i.e. Dearsy, our showroom manager, they picked Malt as the color for their counters and settled on a 12x12 size for the counter.

And just like that, we were done. Now the Hammings will have a beautiful backsplash and counter they designed.

With Fireclay Tile, the options are truly endless. You don't need something extremely fancy, as our colors are so unique and stunning they almost take care of the design for you.

I can't wait to see photos from their project once it is all complete. Now that I have helped design my first backsplash I plan to return to my Quickbooks and website design and let the experts work with our customers. But, having gone through the process, I can truly appreciate the wonder of designing with Fireclay Tile!

If we can help you with a free quote or free samples, just let us know!

Ever wonder what makes the variation in our tile colors so beautiful and unique? Curious why tiles that have been fired in the same batch sometimes vary in texture, color, etc? Why is it that every individual tile is unique to a certain degree?  This can be a common question in the tile world and one we at Fireclay are quite familiar with. BUT it is also one of the reasons we love what we do and the uniqueness of the products which we make. Color variation is what makes Fireclay so special and wonderful! The key things to know are:

  - It happens! Because of this we grade each of our Debris and Vitrail Series colors V1 to V4 to indicate potential range of color

  - Color variation and range in ceramic glazes is beautiful and one of the many reasons people choose Fireclay Tile

  - Educate yourself or your customers about color variation so you know what to expect and can fully appreciate the beauty

  - Order ~10% extra in case your job requires more than you originally anticipated

  - Matching color or a control sample is a very challenging task and is not a guarantee. Hence, we have a $350 color set-up fee for custom work or non-standard colors.

At Fireclay Tile we custom manufacture each and every order we receive. Rather than stocking product and limiting our selection, which means your tile may look mass produced, we have developed a proprietary process to ensure a quick (~4 week) turnaround that allows an infinite range of possibilities and uniqueness for your tile. It’s a great process and one that produces absolutely stunning ceramic tile, but being that it is a handmade tile we want to make sure you, our customer, are aware of color variation – why it happens and what it means.

Why Color Variation Happens…

Color variation occurs in high-fired ceramic tiles where the glaze reacts slightly different at high temperatures and the amount of O₂ circulating in the air. Certain colors react more than others, producing more color variation within an individual batch.  Unlike paint which is mixed and then dries a final color, glazes only show their true colors when combined with a heat catalyst that brings forth beautiful, deep, rich colors. People are drawn to glazes because of this richness and depth – it’s something you will never get from glass, plastic, or paint products. But because of inconsistencies in heat and because our tiles are handmade, many of our colors experience subtle color variation that one must understand so as not to be surprised when they see it. We and others believe it is this variation which truly brings forth the beauty of Fireclay Tile – it’s not mass made, rather it’s made for you by Fireclay Tile!

Some glaze colors are more effected by differences in heat. An example is a color with a peach tone or green/yellow, which will be more effected by the temperature. White, on the other hand, does not vary much because there is almost no color, and black which has a very strong stain does not vary much either. To help you better choose your colors we have ranked each color V1 to V4 to express how much variation to expect for each Debris Color and Vitrail Color. The ratings are:

Here are some examples (note: computer monitors do not always show exact color match):

Debris Series Example Colors & Color Variation Grade
Tusk (V1)	Brown Bear Satin (V2)	Bryce Canyon (V3)	Bamboo Matte (V4)
Vitrail Series Example Colors & Color Variation Grade
Ebony (V1)	Cranberry (V2)	Prussian Blue (V3)	Basil (V4)

What This Means for You…

We guarantee you an absolutely stunning product that is beautiful, vibrant, and unique. Understanding variation ensures that you are not surprised when you see slightly different shades on certain colors, and do not view those shades as imperfections but rather benefits of purchasing a handmade tile. We've included a few shots highlighting some subtle variation which we love!

What We Recommend...

  - Always refer to our Color Variation Grades and compare those grades with the Debris Series and Vitrail Series colors you are interested in.

  - If you are looking at a V3 or V4 color, feel free to ask us for a sample to purchase or visit a retailer near you.

  - Purchase your tile first and then follow with paint colors, countertops, or cabinetry. The tile will be the focal point, and it sets the tone for the rest of the space. Plus, it will certainly out-last any other product because of its durability and strength.

  - When placing your order, we suggest ordering an additional 10% more than you need just in case something should happen or you mis-measured. We can try our best to re-make part of your order, but it may come out looking slightly different.

  - Don't expect an absolutely perfect match to your sample. We will always give our best effort and our quality control department will try its best to always catch true imperfections. It is a handmade product, though, which means exact matching will almost never occur. We will come close, but when ordering colors you must realize that matching is not a guarantee.

  - Order from our current set of Standard Colors. Old or discontinued colors should not be considered unless you pay a $350 color set-up fee.

We hope this provides a better explanation of color variation in ceramic tile! Any questions please never hesitate to email us.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Kathy Norton and Mitchell Keith

Guest teacher Delaine Hackney is back for a Spring Garden Mosaic Series at the Fireclay Tile Boneyard. This hands-on workship will teach you the basics of mosaic tiling and give you all the tools, materials, and instruction to create the perfect Garden Mosaic design.

Delaine is a gifted teacher, and her classes at Fireclay were recently reviewed by the San Jose Mercury News.

Classes are from 10 AM - 3 PM on Saturday, and each class costs $80. Class dates are 5/8, 6/12, 7/10, and 8/14. To register email Delaine.

Written by Dawn Engel, owner and landscape designer at The Artist's Garden

Ten years ago, I discovered Fireclay Tile in my search for materials to use in a bathroom remodel project. Fireclay Tile’s famous “boneyard” yielded enough gorgeous handmade ceramic tile to enrobe our shower enclosure with the beauty that only a handcrafted product can obtain. I was hooked!

This year, I was a garden creator in the 2010 San Francisco Flower and Garden Show. When I began thinking about materials to use for my flooring, my thoughts immediately returned to Fireclay Tile. My garden, entitled “Salvaged Creole Jazz Courtyard” was to be composed entirely of recycled, repurposed, and salvaged materials. Fireclay Tile’s Debris Series line of ceramic tiles--made from recycled materials-- fit the bill perfectly. When Fireclay Tile and its owner Paul said they would sponsor my garden, I was filled with gratitude. This is truly a company that believes in supporting the arts and fills an important place in our community.

The Debris Series comes in many beautiful, luminous glaze colors, and I had a terrible time picking the colors I liked the best! I ended up choosing Evergreen (a deep peacock blue-green) and Limon (a chartreuse). The main flooring material in my garden display was recycled brick, and I loved how these two colors looked juxtaposed to the brick. I decided to create borders of Debris Series ceramic tile set within the brick flooring. The play of color, as well as the contrast of rough brick with the smooth, satin finish of the ceramic tile elevated the garden floor from ho-hum to masterful. One of the garden show judges even said that it was his favorite element in the garden!

In all, my garden won five awards, including a gold medal from the judges, as well as People’s Choice Award. Many of the compliments I received from the show goers were directed at the flooring. Everyone was amazed and impressed that the ceramic tile was made from recycled materials. Fireclay Tile played a huge role in the success of my garden!

Note: This is the 2nd in a Two Part Series on using Fireclay Tile in Landscape Architecture. Please also check out Fireclay Tile for Landscape Architecture - Part 1

Today Show weatherman, Al Roker interviews Chassie Post from Dominao Magazine who discusses the March 2007 Domino Magazine which features going Green in a fun, sustainable way, adn affordable way.

Our Debris Series 4x4 tile is featured as the backsplash, and Domino magazine highlights it for its beauty, locally made aspect, and recycled content. Plus, it's economical, and will last a lifetime. Watch here!

Today Show weatherman, Al Roker interviews Chassie Post from Dominao Magazine who discusses the March 2007 Domino Magazine which features going Green in a fun, sustainable way, adn affordable way.

Our Debris Series 4x4 tile is featured as the backsplash, and Domino magazine highlights it for its beauty, locally made aspect, and recycled content. Plus, it's economical, and will last a lifetime. Watch here!