New Works

Restoration

La Bibliothèque de l'Assemblée nationale du Québec

At FabArgile we are thrilled and honored to be fabricating tiles for the limited restoration of the library’s floors. Designing and making floor tiles presents a safety challenge. What is unseen, the internal ceramic structure, has to be carefully constructed and tested to provide a sound technical substructure for the visual elements of the tile. The process of matching colors and surface design comes after this.

In my opinion, the affective design of the ceramic floor of the Library stands in strong counterpoint to the grand structures of its architecture. The patterns of the mosaic floor tiles harken to the tapestry of rugs, both then and now. The allusion to rugs, something with which we are all familiar, provides a note of intimacy in an otherwise grand space.

In helping to restore these old works, I marvel at the impeccable skill in design and execution. Perhaps humility and wonder are their timeless gifts to us.

Shrinkage!

Testing two clay-bodies for sizing, density, and color response

Cathédrale Sainte-Thérès-d'Avila, Amos, Québec, built 1922

At FabArgile we are restoring the Cathedral's architectural outdoor ceramic murals.

Matching tiles that have endured harsh weather for 100 years.

Development Processes

Hunting the Byzantine Blue

Making tiles at FabArgile

Contamination! Suddenly iron specks appeared throughout. It took us several weeks to find the culprit.

The blue tiles, fresh from the kiln.

Leaf tiles 4x4 inch.

Crawling Blue

The 'crawling' surface patterns are created when excessive surface tension in the glaze is designed to randomly 'tear' the glaze apart during the firing, 4x4 inch/10x10cm zero absorption tiles (ie they weather the winter).

CUBIC VESSELS
An exploration of rhythms in form and surface
(in tribute to Dave Brubeck)

The work presented in CUBIC VESSELS is an ongoing exploration of rhythmic relationships of form and surface. It's inspired by the music of Dave Brubeck; a master of beguiling rhythms. The clay is a mid range clay adapted from one of SIAL’s clay bodies. The glazes are made in house. They are composed of frits, spars, metal oxides, clay, and silica. This part of the exploration is focused on the cube as vessel, the analog and digital, the yin and yang, the rhythm of stop and the rhythm of go.
If you're into Brubeck's music try this. Start Take Five in one page, let it play for about five seconds, and then open a new page and start Take Five again. I could swear that together they form a fugue of sorts, sometimes clashing, other times harmonizing, one motif chasing another! Ah, what might that look like?

Start the audio track of Take Five to accompany you through Cubic Vessels.