Making a custom, kitchen backsplash

Our most recent backsplash…we call it Little Tree because we customized the tiles, making 7" x 7" tiles in order to fit the entire tree in the space.

A homeowner contacted us to order a custom-made, ceramic tile backsplash to go above her kitchen range. She gave us the dimensions of the wall space that she wanted to fill, minus the size of the "rod" style tile in black, wrought iron, that will border the custom tiles we make. We then determined that she'd need 7" x 7" tiles, allowing for the groutlines. When she said she wanted the Tree of Life design we Photoshopped an image of a Tree of Life mural on the image she sent us of her space. She loved it!

Photoshopped image of Tree of Life backsplash

She approved, and we've started the piece. We will work with her to pick glaze colors, first by sending her a sampling of 3" x 3" color chips so that she can see the actual glaze colors before making her choice.

handmade tile, Natalie Blake, ceramic tile, backsplash tile

We've started making the piece by first rolling out the tiles, and draping them over our forms on the table to give the tiles our signature undulation.

Click on the image below to watch a short video of this process:

Here we are carving the piece:

backsplash tile, handmade tile, Natalie Blake

Here's the final piece, fresh from the kiln.

handmade, ceramic backsplash tile by Natalie Blake

We just received (Dec 10, 2013) 2 images of the piece being installed. These images show the tiles in place, but not yet grouted. Stay tuned for more images!

Backsplash, Cool stories, kitchen tile backsplash, New WorkNB StudiosOctober 4, 2013sgraffito3 Comments