One component of my design includes a border across the top and bottom of the balconies, like a frame. I custom designed an extruder die to make these tile pieces. The size is about 3″ x 2″ each. I used a gun metal glaze to tie in with the black banisters around the balcony steps.The shape of the tile acts as a “bullnose” which is tapered at the end to make the water flow off the mural; just like the end tiles in a bath area.

Necessity is the mother of invention!

Border "bullnose" tiles, there are about 240 of them.

As I’m working away at the studio I am trying not to be anxious! The canal site is in need of repairs prior to installing a tile mural, and hopefully this will be finished soon. Just another behind-the-scenes detail that is a necessary part of the process.

"Before" condition of balcony to be tiled.

I have completed glazing and firing all the pieces for both murals.Yippee! I am now doing some final layout, and have made some changes to the design. Next steps are numbering and packing in preparation to move everything to the Canal site. We are less than one week away from installing and I’m hoping for sunny weather all next week….

finished pieces laid out and ready to number and pack.

I realized I have only been posting pics of the mural laid out on a table. There are many other steps to the process, that are doubled since there are two balconies! So I thought I’d share a little more behind-the-scenes pics as I work through the second mural. The steps after rolling out wet clay include moving each section to the drying rack, bisque firing, and then hand painting each piece with glazes and firing a second time.

mural pieces on vented drying rack, waiting to b e bisque fired.