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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 (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
It’s not too often one gets the opportunity to be completely immersed in a world of tile-- to be surrounded by its history, its beauty, its unique craft. For those of you who know the Historic Howden Building in Oakland, California, you may have an idea of the beauty to which I speak of. For those of you who don’t, let me just quote from Mosaic Art Now and say it’s “a glittering, shimmering, jewelry box of a tile showroom.” Unique in many ways, this building, which was built in 1925, houses a showcase of tile-- and it is in this very place that the Tile Heritage Foundation presents “Clay Expectations: A Festival of Tiles and Mosaics” this Sunday, September 12th, 10-5 pm.
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This fundraising event will bring together the work of tile artisans and artists alike all to be showcased and exhibited in “support of the Tile Heritage Foundation’s ongoing archival and cataloging programs.” Accompanying the presentation of tile and mosaic art, tours and lectures will be given, along with children’s workshops on clay and mosaics. Amongst the tile artisans and artists attending, Fireclay Tile is thrilled to be a participant in this Sunday’s event and share our unique 24-year-old tile history. We will be showcasing our sustainable, handmade, local tile, specifically our hand-painted Cuerda Seca tiles, which we have been making here at Fireclay Tile for over 15 years. Please join us and witness the true beauty and uniqueness of tile from all around and learn about its fascinating history. It will truly be an event not to be missed-- so bring your family along to this spectacular showcase and have some fun!
For more information, please visit http://www.tileheritage.org/
Details:
Sunday, September 12th, 10-5 pm
Historic Howden Building
17th & Webster Sts., Oakland, California
Admission: $5 ($4 with this notice)
Lectures:
Tiles Out of the Blue: Creating Beauty from the Earth
California Decorative Tiles, 1900-1930
By Joseph A. Taylor 11-noon Sunday, Sept. 12th
Berkeley, California
1913-1959
By Kirby William Brown 1-2pm Sunday, Sept. 12th
Towers, Totems and Tiles
By Lillian Sizemore 3-4 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 12th
Tiles and Terra Cotta in Uptown Oakland
A Walking Tour with Riley Doty
Presented by Oakland Heritage Alliance
12:30 – 3 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 12th
Separate charge: $10
Elizabeth Raybee will orchestrate a “drop-in for
kids” (of all ages) to make mini-mosaics. Among
the choices will be mosaic pins or fridge magnets
made in jar lids or anchovy/sardine cans. Lots of
fun and glitter! Everyone can take away a
finished piece. Elizabeth Raybee is an
internationally recognized mosaic artist and
teacher.
Tile Heritage is also providing a supervised Kids’
Clay Table all day with well known ceramists &
teachers: Irene de Watteville, Dale Wiley, Lisa
Cox, Chere Mah and Colette Crutcher. This will
be an informal setting with lots of clay tools,
stamps and molds as well as guidance and
demonstration by the teachers. Everyone can take
home what they make!
The Tiles of California Faience
Southern California Mosaic Fantasy Worlds:
Tour:
Workshop for Kids -Mosaic
Workshop for Kids - Clay
By Amie Johnson - Fireclay's Design Specialist
At 10 to 10:00 I walked into the yard at work on the Saturday of our annual Boneyard Blowout which ends on September 4th. Carlos hadn't even had the door to the showroom open and there were already a few early birds in the boneyard. Within the hour there was a constant flow of 20 to 30 people. It was crazy. I've worked many Saturday's and I've never seen it like this. Our customers were so excited that some tiles were just $.13! They couldn't believe it.
We had one couple put designs together for a few different rooms in their house, after 3 hours, hungry bellies and only spending about $350.00 they had what they wanted! What a DEAL!!!! They couldn't believe they were getting tile normally selling for $25sqft for $2.50sqft. Others were artists looking for those perfect little pieces for a mirror or a mosaic design they were finishing. There was one lady literally there all day, she was full of conversation. She checked out a few different times and kept going back for more! She was great! One lady brought in her mother to help pick out tiles for the risers on her front porch, it was beautiful!!! She thanked her mother for her very talented eye and had a smile from ear to ear. It was a lot of fun sharing everyone's excitement.
Sunglasses on and running, Kate, Carlos and I never stopped. I think I was yelling for Carlos every 20 minutes to make, move or load up boxes for tile hungry customers! At 50% off boneyard tiles and 20% off all of our pavers, people were ecstatic. People actually came in with the Mercury News Paper and mapquest print outs. It was amusing. By 3:00 we had a line of people waiting outside to checkout. Some of the last customers just wanted to make sure they got on the emailing list. They didn't want to be the last customers next time. As I walked to my car and the gate was closed, there were still die hard customers wanting in. It was all in all a great, fun and exhausting day at the lovely Fireclay Tile.
Join us at our Annual Boneyard Blowout running from August 23 - Septemember 4. The Fireclay Tile Boneyard consists of our seconds and overstock, and for the first time ever all items are 50% off. Our Factory Showroom also has a wide selection of Pavers and Saltillos, each 20% off.
Tile starting at $2.50 per square foot for field tile and $.50 per piece for decorative - there is NO better deal for handmade, sustainable, high quality ceramic tile! Wide paver selection including Fireclay own material as well as Mexican Saltillo and other fine paving options!
We hope to see you there! For directions click here.
This weekend we came across a fantastic community sign in one of the best locally made ice cream stores in Northern California - Fairfax Scoops. The sign was simple, displayed next to one of the inside tables, and for a little sign it has a tremendously lasting impact. Given Fireclay Tile's interest in supporting our local community and on manufacturing locally, we thought these tips for engaging with your local community are fantastic!
In case you have trouble reading the photo, here is the text:
Turn off your TV
Leave your House
Know your neighbors
Look up when you are walking
Greet People
Sit on your stoop
Plant Flowers
Use your Library
Play together
Buy from local merchants
Share what you have
Help a lost dog
Take children to the park
Garden together
Support neighborhood schools
Fit it even if you didn’t break it
Have pot lucks
Honor Elders
Pick up litter
Read stories aloud
Dance in the street
Talk to the mail carrier
Listen to the birds
Put up a swing
Help carry something heavy
Barter for your goods
Start a Tradition
Ask a question
Hire young people for odd jobs
Organize a block party
Bake extra and share
Ask for help when you need it
Open your shades
Sing together
Share your skills
Take back the night
Turn up the music
Turn down the music
Listen before you react to anger
Mediate a conflict
Seek to understand
Learn from new and uncomfortable angles
Know that no one is silent though many are not hear work to change this
Here are 5 magical and mosaical ideas of what you can do with tile from Fireclay Tile’s Boneyard, featuring seconds and overstock from many of Fireclay's past orders. If you are new to mosaic tiling, you may want to consult with a mosaic how-to book for details on which tools to use, proper adhesives and basic techniques. Or jump in on a mosaic class at Fireclay Tile and get a comprehensive base of mosaic knowledge. Whatever your mosaic projects, discount tile from the Fireclay Tile Boneyard will make it sweet!
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Mosaic Stepping Stone
Concrete stepping-stones can be purchased from Home Depot for around $1. They come in square or round and are ready for mosaicing onto. Whether a simple design or a random abstract mosaic, either is easily doable in a weekend, including grouting.
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Old bowling balls make a great substrate for mosaic gazing spheres that add intense color and sparkle in the garden. The bowling ball first needs to be sanded and then primed with either Kilz2 or Bonderizer so that the surface will be mosaic ready. Glass gems (marbles that are flat on one side) are great for filling in between the ceramic Fireclay tile pieces.
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Mosaic Bird Bath
The terra cotta saucer from under the large terra cotta pot may be purchased separately ($4 - $15 depending on size) and used as a substrate for a mosaic birdbath. Mirror pieces mixed in here and there with the ceramic tile will add that special sparkle that birds love.
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Either Hardibacker or Wonderboard would be an ideal substrate for a mosaic house number sign. Ready for mosaic, these cement boards may be purchased in 3’x5’ sheets at Home Depot and later at home, easily cut down to your preferred size. The numbers, created with broken pieces of beautiful tile from Fireclay’s bone yard, can be as detailed or simple as you choose. Trimmed with a mosaic frame and complimentary background colors, before you know it, you’ll be mosaicing your whole house!
Mosaic Retaining Wall
This is a great project where the whole family can be involved. A concrete wall is a great “canvas” for mosaicing a mural. Mosaics are forgiving by their nature, and pretty much whatever gets glued onto the wall, as long as it is tile from the Fireclay bone yard, will be a whimsical, colorful and lively masterpiece!
The Fireclay Tile team is always amazed at the creations that come out of our Boneyard. Many times we find creative scavengers searching for inexpensive beautiful tile, and other times high end designers who know their clients are willing to push the limits. But for many, the experience can be overwhelming, especially with how vast the tile selection is. Thus, we called in the experts to help teach some of these folks how to best find tile in our Boneyard, and then what to do with that tile.
For the past several months guest mosaic tile teacher Delaine Hackney (www.delainemosaic.com) has been offering pet portraiture and garden mosaic classes on weekends at our San Jose Factory Showroom...specifically our boneyard.
Here are some wonderful pictures of some of the students creations at the most recent class:
So fantastic!
For more information on classes check out Delaine's website at http://www.delainemosaic.com. More classes are being offered over the next few months so sign up while there is still space!
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.
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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!
On June 24 Fireclay Tile celebrated a huge achievement and showcased our newly designed San Jose Tile Showroom. Roughly 5 months after starting this project and after investing close to $30,000 on the remodel, we are so thrilled to showcase our beautiful locally manufactured products and other favorite vendors.
Fireclay's tile and surface materials Factory Showroom features an enormous display of Fireclay products in hundreds of colors, shapes and sizes. We designed and custom built a beautiful new bathtub, shower, and kitchen backsplash installation, and designed over 100 new concept boards to provide design inspiration for any environment. We will feature LOTS of pictures in a follow-post after they have been properly photographed, but if you want to come visit for yourself to see the wonderful creations, you can find directions here.
We also celebrated the achievement by inviting some of our local customers and fans and sharing one of our most favorite Fireclay experiences - BBQ!!!
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| Martin, a Fireclay Founder, and Steve | Paul, Founder and Chief Ceramicist, with guests |
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| Carlos (far L) and Meika (far R) with friends | Paul with Laura (graphic designer) and her husband |
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| Erika, Joy (Merchandizing) and Lindsey (Intern) | Delanie (seated), our mosaic teacher |
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| Guests got to "Make their own" Cuerda Seca | Steve, Paul, and Martin - The 3 Amigos! |
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| Alex, our Customer Solutions expert! | Guests enjoying the delicious BBQ |
We are already planning our next Customer Appreciation BBQ and look forward to seeing you there!
On Monday, June 14, we had visitors from San Jose’s Work2Future’s Green Cadre. These are young adults (18-24) who are being trained for “Green Jobs” and are a direct beneficiary of stimulus funds to help get individuals prepared to be part of the “Green economy”. Gary Wolf, the group’s instructor, had done some research on San Jose Green Companies and Fireclay Tile had been at the top of the list.
The Green Cadre’s mission is to “Develop a cadre of low-income young adult leaders, 18-24 years old, who will receive leadership and civic engagement training that allows them to become environmental stewards and ambassadors for the City of San Jose’s Clean and Green Vision and allied efforts.”
Monday’s guests at Fireclay got a tour of the San Jose Factory Tile Showroom from Eric, our business guy, heard Paul, our founder and Chief Ceramicist, discuss his background and commitment to sourcing recycled materials to incorporate into our ceramic tiles, and each guest was treated to a make-your-own free Cuerda Seca decorative tile to be used as a hot pad or trivet. The goal was to educate them about green businesses, what it means to be green, and how important their involvement in this program is to setting a future course for more sustainable businesses in the United States.
A big thank you to all the people like Gary associated with Work2Future and the Green Cadre program – we were thrilled to share our story with you.
For more information be sure to visit the Work2Future website or email (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
