Archive | March, 2012

Our tile featured on Houzz.com

One of our tile murals was recently featured in a Houzz.com “Ideabook”. The blogger profiles our Tree of Life mural as a solution to hanging art in a stairwell. Check out the article by clicking here.

For those of you who don’t know about Houzz.com. Here’s how they describe themselves on their website:

About Houzz

Houzz is a leading destination site for home design enthusiasts– professionals and homeowners. The Houzz site and mobile apps feature over 250,000 high quality interior and exterior photos, thousands of highly-engaging articles written by design experts, product recommendations and social tools to manage the remodeling and decorating process.

On the Houzz platform:

Design professionals showcase their portfolios, sharing their work with a community dedicated to home and landscape design. 40,000+ professionals have uploaded more than 250,000 inspiring photographs, making Houzz the Internet’s largest database of design and decorating ideas.

Homeowners collect their favorite photos, find design professionals in their areas, upload photos of their homes and gardens, and swap tips and questions with other members. More than a million ideabooks have been created by Houzz members, and new ones are added every minute.

Vine mural completed

An art consultant contacted us this winter, asking for help in designing a tile mural for a residential installation. The art consultant sent us images of the client’s living room to give us an idea of style and color.

The client liked the idea of a botanical design. We sketched the following design and the client loved it:

We proposed a mural of 9, 12″ square tiles to fill the wall leading into the space. The client worked with her interior designer, taping paper cut-outs on the wall to determine spacing. Here’s what they initially came up with.

"Before" shot

We made a counter proposal which the client really liked. We glazed the piece in honey, jade, and cashew. Here’s the finished piece:

handmade, sgraffito-carved, ceramic wall art tile by Natalie Blake Studios

Vine, handmade, ceramic wall art tile by Natalie Blake Studios

Here’s the piece installed in the space.

Vine, installed

Three beautiful abstract murals

These three murals were commissioned by an art consultant for a hospital installation. The tiles are each 12″ x 12″.

The glazes she chose are: Moss, Apricot, Honey, Blue, Turquoise, Cashew

handmade, sgraffito-carved, ceramic wall tile by Natalie Blake Studios

Off the Road!

Natalie just returned from her 2-week epic trip to the American Craft Council Retail Show in Baltimore and the Palm Beach Fine Craft Show. Both shows went very well for Natalie.

She did return with this piece, which is now available for us to sell off the internet. The piece is called Dawn Dusk Skies. It measures 28″ wide x 56″ high. We are offering this piece at a discounted price of $3,400 (regularly $3,880). Contact the studio if you are interested: 802.254.9761 or info@natalieblake.com

handmade, ceramic wall art and backsplash tile by Natalie Blake Studios

Dawn Dusk Skies, 14" tiles

Installation images from Chabot College

In 2011 Natalie Blake Studios was awarded a public art grant from Chabot College in Hayward, CA. We’ve posted several articles about our work on this grant. We now have installation shots from Natalie’s recent trip to install some of the work.

Finally installed, the Grandmother tree looks like it has been there for a century. The Grandmother tree’s long flowing lines draw the eye up from the waterfall of blue tiles at the center of Chabot’s faculty building. The second floor balcony provides another vantage point for this central oasis.

handmade, sgraffito-carved, ceramic wall art tile

Grandmother Tree, installed at Chabot College

The Chavez Plaza where students gather outside the Student Center now has two new pieces installed: the Chavez Tree and the Mandala. The Chavez Tree was inspired by sliding thumb puzzles (those little plastic square puzzles from the 80′s where you slide the little squares to unscramble the image) giving the eyes a game to play moving from color to color and section to section. When carving this one section at a time I was immersed in roots then trunks, branches then leaves. Each section had a different quality from the next. The roots are at eye level; the rest tower above in their architectural niche.

Chavez Tree Installed at Chabot College

Installing Natalie Blake Studio tiles at Chabot College

The Mandala resonates on a human scale. The life force expands outwards flickering into different colors. It ties into the quatrefoil architectural motif found around the campus. (Quatrefoil: an ornamental design of four lobes or leaves as used in architectural tracery, resembling a flower or four-leaf clover).

Mandala being installed at Chabot College

Mandala installed at Chabot College

More images of the Hawaii installation

We just received more images of our tiles installed at the Hawaii residence. We made murals and name plates for guest suites at a residence in Hawaii. See our earlier posts on this project.

These latest murals are glazed in russet, persimmon, jade and turquoise. Click here to see closeups of each of these murals.

Natalie Blake Studios handmade, ceramic wall art tile, residential installation

Natalie Blake Studios handmade ceramic wall art tile installed in Hawaii

Natalie Blake Studios handmade, ceramic wall art tile, residential installation