Last month we highlighted an organization called Save the Tiles, which is rescuing historic tiles from the ruins of homes that were destroyed by the California wildfires earlier this year. In researching that Design Notes, we wandered down a veritable path of design history that we haven’t been able to stray from. It turned out many of the tiles hailed from the California Arts & Crafts movement, which is a uniquely localised interpretation of the broader Arts & Crafts movement that originated in England in the late 19th century. On America’s West Coast, hallmarks of the style — natural materials and motifs, handcrafted construction, muted earthy colours — blended with regional resources, like American Redwood and rich clay deposits, along with a melting pot of Spanish and Asian influences.
Many of these elements came together in the iconic bungalows of Charles and Henry Greene, including the Gamble House, with its imposing tiled fireplace featuring a restrained floral motif, and the Bolton House with its Grueby-tiled fireplace. Large landmarks aside, California (and indeed the West Coast at large) is filled with Craftsman cottages thanks to the prolific work of architects like Arthur and Alfred Heineman and Bernard Maybeck. Their work is inspiring a new generation of designers and homeowners as Craftsman style is once again back in favour for its warmth and authenticity—think “wood drenching” before it was a hashtag.
Throughout these homes you’ll find tiles by the artisans we mentioned last month—Ernest Batchelder, Claycraft Potteries, and California Faience, among others. If you find yourself in San Francisco this month, there’s an exhibition of California Decorative Tile at the SFO Museum in conjunction with The Tile Heritage Foundation through 8 June which has some wonderful examples from this period. And if it’s a style you are looking to procure — be it for a new build or to match back in or replace missing pieces in a restoration project — we are happy to provide this list of makers that specialise in decorative California Arts & Crafts tiles and who can all be commissioned for bespoke production runs in addition to the offerings noted below.
In alphabetical order:
Handcraft Collection – Specialising in small batch accent tiles that are intended to augment today’s more ubiquitous manufactured tiles, Handcraft Collection is rooted in the Arts & Crafts tradition, literally spinning off from the c1926 Handcraft Tile company. It is the passion project of husband-wife team, Frank Patitucci and Shirley Dinkins, who first began their love affair with tile after hunting for suitable replacement options while renovating their c1927 Arts & Crafts home in Pleasanton, California.
Heath Ceramics – Established in 1948 by Edith and Brian Heath as a small pottery studio in San Francsico, Heath has grown into an internationally recognised purveyor of handcrafted stoneware tiles. Though not explicitly Arts & Crafts, the company’s ethos and restrained, earthy aesthetic make it compatible with many Craftsman projects, including it’s field tiles and their textural Stan Bitters collection.
Motawi Tileworks – While based in Michigan, Motawi specialises in handcrafted Arts & Crafts style tiles, along with Art Nouveau and Midcentury Modern designs. Plain and decorative field tiles and relief tiles are available in a rich variety of glazes, including corner and trim pieces which create a tapestry of texture when layered together, as seen in this fireplace, left, with its trio of earthy colours and an inset tile “rug” on the raised hearth. You can read more about this installation here. The company was founded in 1992 by Nawal Motawi, who began by making tiles in her garage and selling them at a local farmer’s market. Today, they have the license for Frank Lloyd Wright and Charley Harper designs in addition to their own collection of decorative art tiles, which are made using a traditional Cuenca technique and include some wonderful flora and fauna motifs.
Pasadena Craftsman Tile – After a friend discovered an original Ernest Batchelder plaster mold buried in his yard, Cha-Rei Tang, a multi-hyphenate artisan, architect, designer and artist, was inspired to begin handcrafting ceramic Arts & Crafts style tiles. So began Pasadena Craftsman Tile, which she runs with her daughter, Mei-Ling, from their Pasadena, CA studio. All of their tiles are made to order, be they custom carvings, motifs from the Batcheler Revivals collection, or slip cast tiles in one of their “blends,” which are wonderfully curated groups of glazes across a single range of colours — similar to the blues and greens seen in this fireplace designed in collaboration with Martin Brudnizki, right.
Pratt & Larson – On the Northwest coast in Portland, Oregon, Pratt & Larson has been handcrafting ceramic tiles since 1982, when it was founded by husband and wife duo Michael Pratt and Reta Larson, whose love of sculpture and textiles converged into tile patterns. The company offers a range of Craftsman glazes that are inspired by the American Art Tile movement and they have several collections that are in line with the Arts & Crafts aesthetic—including the InLine collection (pun intended!) and the botanicals relief collection, along with field tiles, trim and decorative pieces.
Stonelight Tile – A Craftsman tile specialist in San Jose, CA described as “the last surviving California tile manufacturer from the golden age of tile makers,” Stonelight began in 1920 as Solon & Schemmel, founded by Albert L. Solon (who hailed from Stoke-on-Trent) and his business partner Frank P. Schemmel. Their tiles were used on projects throughout California, including the Julia Morgan-designed Hearst Castle. The company’s history is deep and fascinating—it merged and changed names a few times over the century, eventually being bought up by a group of three students from the University of California, Berkley, in 1954 who renamed it Stonelight. They still use Solon’s original Arts & Crafts designs and equipment to press patterns into wet clay. Read all about it here.
Tile Restoration Center – Located in Seattle, Washington, Steve Moon and his team use traditional techniques to make accurate and authentic appearing reproductions of American Arts & Crafts tiles with a concentration in designs by Ernest Batchelder and Claycraft. Building on the know-how of potter Marie Glass Tapp, who founded the company in the late 1980s, they can match existing pieces, distress tiles to achieve an aged effect, and so forth. They have also designed their own collection of Arts & Crafts-inspired patterns, including carved reliefs design, trims and border tiles, to complement historical styles.
Totten Tiles – Drawing on a global array of influences from the Arts & Crafts period—British, French, Viennese, Islamic, Japanese—ceramist Chuck Totten anchors his art tiles and architectural ceramics in the American movement through colour. Established in the late 1980s, Totten handcrafts tiles in his Winlock, Washington studio using “dead” crystalline matte glazes that are variegated and complex. This palette gives his original tile designs and site specific installations a feeling of longevity that sits naturally within restoration projects.
Photos: Courtesy of Motawi Tileworks; Pasadena Craftsman Tile