My Delft-style Tiles

I’m teaming up with Mottles Murals Ceramic Tiles to produce Delft-inspired, Dutch-style tiles. I do the art, and Mottles Murals makes the reproductions on kiln-fired tiles and also handles the sale and shipping.

This cottontail was the first to come available, via eBay. Mottles Murals saw my original tile on Pinterest, and contacted me about reproducing it. And thus a partnership was born.

I got into designing tiles during a home remodel. My mother-in-law was married to a Dutchman and living near Amsterdam, and we’d visit her over there. I fell in love with Delft tiles, and wanted them for our home, but couldn’t afford them. I thought, “Eh, how hard would it be to make them myself?”

Well, like many things, a lot harder than it looked. It took me a year to make the tiles for our fireplace surround and kitchen backsplash. I painted the bare bisque tiles with glaze and brought them to Seattle Pottery Supply to be fired, as I didn’t have a kiln of my own. I later did a new set of tiles for an art show in Seattle, posted some photos online, and forgot about them for years. Until Mottles Murals contacted me.

After talking for a while, we decided I would design a set of nautical-themed tiles. Unlike my previous tiles, these designs could be painted on paper, uploaded to Photoshop to be tidied up, and then the files sent to Deb of Mottles Murals. No glaze to deal with, no firing — at least for me. Perfect.

Deb sends the art files to a company in Portugal, and they make glaze “decal” copies of the designs, which they then ship back to her. She applies the decals to basic white tiles from Home Depot or Lowe’s, and then fires them at 1,400 degrees F in her kiln. The result is a tile that can endure water, heat, and weather. A lot of the tiles you see for sale online are printed, and the design can eventually wear off. Mottles Murals is a stickler for quality, and only makes tiles that will last.

The nautical tiles are available for individual sale, or as sets. See my SHOP page for details. There are 18 designs; here are three of them. They’re available with a choice of three different corner motifs, or with none at all, if you’d rather.

Requests: Do you have any special requests for tiles? Let me know. We may be able to work something out. Greyhound owners seem to like this tile I did several years ago: