Every time I see a fox in the wild, i escape my everyday human life as i peek into the mysterious world of Kentucky’s wildlife. These encounters are just fleeting moments, so a lot of the fox’s world is left to my imagination.
For this tile, I’m imagining the fox, taking a moment and appreciating a flower.
After sketching it out, I have modeled the tile in clay
Then I made a plaster mold from the tile.
Once the mold is finished, as a quick test, I press clay in to see if it was a success.
Now that the mold is done,I’m able to make multiples! I have a print making background and this process feels a lot like printing with clay.
This is all done by hand, (no ai or 3d printing robots)-so each tile has a little bit of imprecise human made warp or wobble to it. I try to minimize the warping by allowing air to get all around the tile, and drying slowly.
After the first firing, I get to experiment with different glaze combinations
The final firing completes the tile; melting the glaze and clay into ceramic.
I was so excited to see the results. I used my heat resistant gloves to pull this little guy out while it was still over 400°F.
Because I have multiples, I can try different glaze combinations to see what I like the most.
These are art pieces, so I make them with a notch in the back to hang them on the wall. Often a work of art needs to be put in a frame so I am in the process of making custom frames to fit these tiles.
I plan to have my first edition of these art tiles available at the upcoming final Friday at the Pendleton Art Center, May 29, 2026 from 5 to 9 PM (im on the 4th floor-studio 400)
hope to see you there!
UPDATE! I finished the frames, and they look great!
here’s a link to the blog post about the cardinal tile on the left
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