New Fireplace

Here is a very large project I worked on recently. On 8" tiles, they wanted black and white painting, like Japanese Sumi ink painting, of bamboo. I told them I was not a sumi painter haha, but they loved my work and believed in my talent. I am still waiting on some installation photos from them, but here is one of mine.

Happy New Year!

Well it's the new year. Who would have thought I would live this long? haha Anyway, since I have no new work, except for a dog portrait due in February, I decided to play with clay. I made a plaque yesterday for my address and I will be mortaring it to the front of my house. Havent picked colors yet but I will post it when it is finished. Next will be a series of steppingstones for the front to my mailbox and the back to my studio. Front first because it is flat haha. They will be large pieces of mosaic that I carve out of sculpture clay and attach to store-bought vitreous stepping stones. Cool huh?

Also I am posting another picture of my work that appeared in Timber Homes Magazine. People said you couldnt see it well, so here it is. Still cant, but I guess it is better than the other one lol.

Couple of Crabs

I Got into Timber Homes Magazine

Here's something cool, folks. A former customer got their timber home a write-up in Timber Homes, a slick and serious magazine for people who love the all-wood look. They mentioned me and my web site (www.dyztilz.com) that tiny little mural in the back under the stove light is my birch tree mural.

Mama and Baby Cheetah

I was drawn to the backlighting in this photo. I tell Mike all the time that his photos make MY work look good. Cheetahs are very close-knit on the serengheti plain. Their enemies are everywhere.

Leopard at Sunset

This photo of Mike's was a real challenge for me. The orange light going through his ears and reflecting off his nose changed the look of the big cat that people, including me, are used to seeing. But the image was so compelling I just had to try it, and I believe it succeeded and is already sold! Nothing like cash to convince you lol.

Penguin Tile--Alone at Sunset

Aother of Mike's photographs that drew my attention. I tried a new (for me) method of majolica so that I can create these tiles faster and sell more cheaply. This one is a great success I think.

Mike the Lion

I I would like to share recent tiles with you.

This image of penguins won an award for the photograppher, Mike Madonna of Pennsylvania, and I am very proud to be the artist reproducing his work on hand-painted tile. Mike the Lion is so cool I asked for it back! haha He was very generous and agreed. Some things you do you just have to hang in your own studio to remind you of what you truly can do, or at least ONCE DID!

Some New Ventures

Here are some new things I am learning. A gent wants to have a supply of relief tiles, so my husband and I learned how to make molds ffor relief tiles. I can't believe I summed up the last 4 months of hair-ripping trial and error all in one sentence! Didnt it sound easy? It was not. And the results arent even that great. But we feel we learned how to make relief molds, so SOMEthing happened haha. They are going into old barn board creations, mirrors, etc., and he wanted western themes. He got em lol.

Interview with a Tilepainter

Self Taught Artist: Dy, congrats on getting a blog up! I feel its important for other ceramic tile artists as well as other self staught artists to know more about who you are and how you got into tile. Can you give us a brief history on your first experience with tile? What got you interested in it?

Dy: I was an apprentice to a semi-famous ceramic sculptress for 8 years, that is how I learned the huge palette of ceramic glaze colors that is in my brain lol. I looked up high in her living room one day and saw a colorful painting, but it was broken! I thought to myself, Ahh, a broken painting, how intriguing,. When she told me it was a tile painting I asked to buy it. She told me it was a gift from her daughter, and gave me the number to call her and ask to have one made. She told me, You have been painting in ceramic glaze for years right? Just make one yourself! Sometimes it amazes me the things I have to be TOLD to do haha, but that is how and when I started painting tile. That was in 1991.

Self Taught Artist: So it was that simple? You just started painting tiles from then on? I see from your website that you have made reliefs and done other works with ceramics other than tile. Is there anything you want to do you haven't done?

Dy: HAHA I didnt mean to make it sound so simple. My very first attempt was almost laughable. I had no idea what sort of tile to buy, so when I found a tile that had a surface glaze that felt just like paper, I bought a whole case. Well, it was still a glaze, and I didnt even know that I couldnt paint glaze on top of already glazed tile, so wow you shouldl have seen THOSE bubbles haha. And every other mistake after that was made, one at a time.
In 26 years I have bearely scratched the surface of what one can do with ceramic glaze. I would love to make planters and right now I am experimenting with mold-making. Oh so many things to try.....

Self Taught Artist: you barely scratched the surface in 26 years? I can't even comprehend that. In your career then, out of the myriad of styles/choices, do you feel you have focused mostly on one genre in order to 'conquer' it? and have you in fact conquered it? What's left on your list of things you must do/try with ceramics

Dy: I love to carve relief tile. But it takes so long to make them one at a time, so I am in the process of learning to make molds and things, ways to make the process faster so I can charge less and make more pieces. Another blogger gave me the idea of a resist method I just started today, using shellac. It is fun and I cant wait to see how it works out. I am carving through the resist to make multiple layers of resist. Wish me luck.

I also want to try sculpture, yard art to be more precise. I have a huge yard and cant plant it all up in flowers, so I want to mix my own creations among the perennials to give it some life. The wonderful lady who is helping me learn how to make molds of my work has created wonderful creatures she "adopts" out to new families. Here is her link: http://www.rarecreatures.com

I want to do more majolica. The colors are brighter and looser, a whole new style for me. I enjoy it but havent had time to explore it as muich as I would like. The red grapes I uploaded is a sample of this technique.

To be continued........

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