Hand-painted Tiles

Michael Holigan: Tile is a basic part of almost every bathroom in America. But there's nothing basic about this handmade tile from a creative company called Dancing Hands (214-691-0002).

Suzanne Richard: Dancing Hands tile is quite different from a lot of tile out there. It is handmade. I design for client's needs, for their environment to fit their sort of fantasies. It creates an unusual environment for them and makes them feel happy. You'll see Old World murals; you'll see contemporary designs. One of my favorite aspects of custom tile in fact is working with embossed tile incorporating trim pieces, say at the top of a wanes coating or incorporating a rope, custom design rope, or incorporating a random placement of a design in a solid color wall. It really brings out the beauty in what the clay is all about.

MH: Recently, Dancing Hands was commissioned to transform an existing bathroom that really needed a facelift.

SR: This is a house that sits on a lake and has lovely views. The master bathroom is upstairs and the focal point of the bathroom is the bathtub. It has a huge window that faces the lake. So, what we're going to do are wild flowers.

MH: Suzanne began by identifying wild flowers native to the home's location. Then she worked out all of the details on her concept on the computer. This project will actually be a series of murals that will require nearly 3,000 tiles. Every mural must be precisely plotted on elevation renderings. Once the design and colors are finalized it's time to paint the murals.

SR: To paint a mural all of the tile has to be laid out at one time.

MH: Suzanne custom mixes all of her glazes. It will take 20 separate firings to finish all the tiles that will be used in the bathroom murals.

SR: Looks like this load is ready to unload.

MH: And how long did it take to fire it completely?

SR: About seven hours. It takes about 14 to 18 hours to cool down. So we can start unloading these.

MH: Feels warm, but not hot.

SR: It gets a little warm, yeah. It's basically like a big oven. So, how we're going to pull these out is push on the inside just a hair.

MH: Okay.

SR: To give you enough gripping space and pull straight up.

MH: Try not to drop it.

SR: Right.

MH: How many tiles are in this load?

SR: About 200. This is one of the mosaics that goes in the water closet. After I get everything assembled then I number each of the tiles and they coordinate to a chart which is given to the tile installer.

MH: Looks good.

SR: Yeah.

MH: Colors look great. Doesn't look pre-finished. It does look like you did it by hand.

SR: Yes. It's supposed to look that way.

MH: Yeah.

SR: Real painterly.

MH: After two and a half months of hard work it's finally time to install the murals. I joined homeowner Norris Palmer as Suzanne showed us the finished tiles for the first time. Hey Suzanne, how are you doing?

SR: Hi! Pretty good.

MH: I guess you didn't get the instructions, but this was supposed to go in a bathroom wall, not out on the deck.

SR: I'm just laying out the last few pieces. All of the pieces are numbered actually on the backside, so they shouldn't have a problem.

MH: Isn't that sort of cheating? Wouldn't it be more exciting if you just threw them all on the floor and try to figure it out?

SR: Yes it would.

MH: Well, looks like you're ready. Is our tile guy ready upstairs?

SR: They are ready.

Michael Johnston: Every piece has a place.

MH: Michael Johnston of Custom Tile Designs must rely on Suzanne's elevation diagrams and her numbering system during the three-day installation. Because handmade tile is thicker than mass produced tile, it can be a little more difficult to install.

MJ: A lot of times with mastic you'll use an eighth inch V-notch, and that'll be sufficient for factory made tile, but these are handmade. They warp a little bit and so you want it to be a little deeper, so this is a 3/16 notch trowel which will give you a little more play to make sure that it has sufficient coverage on the back of the tile.

MH: The qualify craftsmanship in both the tile's design and installation really make this master bathroom a special sanctuary.

SR: Starting over at the vanity area we're applying plants of the cactus family and as it gets closer to the bathtub it sort of flourishes with wild flowers and lots of color. The mural over the bathtub has a very nice elegant birdbath that sits right in the center and you're almost looking up at it and there's a red bird that's perched looking out at the lake. Finishing off the wanes coating are three rows of very unique tile. They're alternating solid color and graphics. I really feel that the wild flower concept is such an unusual and beautiful approach to satisfying what my client really wanted.

Contact:
Dancing Hands 214-691-0002

Episode 55 1997 - 98 Season

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