How I Made the 1,000 Tile Project
Have you ever come up with an idea you thought was great, then started working on it and realized it was going to be much bigger than you thought?
That brings me to the story behind the “1,000 Tiles Say a Single Word” piece that was part of the Potters Guild of Hamilton biennial exhibition “Next” in March 2024 at the Carnegie Gallery in Dundas, Ontario.
It was a few years ago when I was pondering the saying “a picture says a thousand words,” when it dawned on me, could a thousand pictures say a single word? So my mind started coming up with how to put this together. Initially I pictured this as a quilt project, as our church was looking for a new location and I could see this large quilt displayed somewhere on the walls. Then I thought about trying to line up all those corner seams, and decide that would be too complicated. Okay, not complicated, but it would require such an attention to detail in sewing that I didn’t quite have the patience for. (I know, it’s progress over perfection, but misaligned seams makes me twitch!)
Graph paper was used to sketch out different variations of the design, sticking with the quilt theme. I calculated how many tiles were needed of each colour for the word and for the background, including how many half-square triangles would be needed to complete the letters. This was going to be a fun project. But how could I complete it if I didn’t want to make a quilt?
Why not tiles? If I make them 1” tiles that would be reasonable, rather than the 2” squares I was going to go with on the quilt (1” fabric squares being far too small to deal with.)
Sure, I could make 1,000 hand-made 1” tiles. How hard could it be? (What was I thinking and why did no one stop me??)
Here are the steps involved:
Cut a slab of clay, roll it to a consistent 1/4” thickness, and keep it flat. This was done using dedicated rolling pins and measuring sticks as I don’t have a slab roller. Ah, rolling pin, my manual tile-making friend!
If applying texture for the background pieces roll it into the clay now.
Cut tiles to size:
Employ a 4” tile cutter to cut the main size. (Which is actually 4 1/2 “ to account for clay shrinkage)
Divide into sixteen 1” tile blanks, cutting by hand using a ruler and scalpel or exacto blade
Keep tiles on bat to ensure they stay flat
If employing individual decorations like letters or designs rather than a general texture, carve/impress those now
Let dry overnight
Flip tiles using a second bat and number them to keep track of how many have been made
Let tiles dry slowly and weighted down in the damp cupboard (a drying cupboard used to keep additional air flow off of clay while it dries, so it dries at a consistent pace all around to prevent warping)
Apply underglaze
Bisque fire tiles around other pieces in the kiln
Carefully collect the tiles when unloading the kiln and put the bisqued tiles in a shoebox for safekeeping
Rinse and damp-sand the tiles to soften the edges from any sharp pieces, cleaning off extra dust if they’ve been sitting for a while
Prep for glaze firing:
Organize the tiles so there is a balance of colours/patterns
Apply the different glazes
Set aside for firing around other pieces (I had them laid out on sheets of newsprint so I could keep track of the colours, and it was easier to pick up a few hundred at a time that way.)
After all these steps were done, I had 1,033 tiles (always make extra) tucked away neatly in the shoebox. What now?
How the heck was I going to put this together???
I signed up for a mosaics class at the Dundas Valley School of Art (thank you, Heather Vollans, for patiently answering my questions on how to put this together!!) then gathered the supplies needed to assemble the project.
Then doubt set in. Ah, doubt. The artist’s old foe.
Would this really work? Was this really the best way to put the project together? Once it’s started, there’s no going back. After battling months of over-thinking the project, self-doubt and negative self talk, I decided to go for it.
I transferred the design to a large grid paper, then cut the substrate, measured and installed the hanging hardware, prepped the substrate boards (trimmed with drywall tape, covered in tile compound skim coat — front and back — allowed to dry) and then the tile installation could begin. That part actually went quite quickly, considering how long it took to make all the tiles and get them through the process. I set aside the boards to work on the pattern, placing each tile on the grid paper, rearranging as needed to have a balanced design. Then one board at a time, I attached the tiles with tile adhesive. After the panels dried and adhesive set, I applied the final layer of grout.
After several long years, voila! 1,000 tiles say a single word!
Most people will never know the steps that go into a piece, they only see the finished piece on the wall or the plinth. They may or may not recognize the work, research, and skill-building behind it. Artists can’t help but keep making the work though; once they have the idea in their mind, they have to see it through. Even if it doesn’t end up the way it was initially intended, it will end up the way it was meant to be.
If you read this far to the end, thank you! It’s a long post about a process that may never be repeated, but you never know when another word will make it’s way through the kiln ;)
PS: If you want to clarify your goals, check out my Goal Assessment Planner below: