Handmade Tiles: Designing: Making: Decorating

by Frank Giorgini

Book Overview

Easy-to-understand, and an enthusiastic treatment of the art of making tiles that provides a wealth of practical information, from design and formation, through decoration and installation. "The... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0937274763
• ISBN13: 9780937274767
• Release Date: December 1999
• Publisher: Lark Books (NC)
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 8.8" x 11.3"

Customer Reviews

The Real Deal of Tile Books!

This book inspired me enough to make tiles for not one of my bathrooms, but for two of my bathrooms! In the next few months I will make the tile for my kitchen too! I am not a professional tile maker by any means, but with the help of this wonderful book, "Handmade Tiles" by Frank Giorgini and some ceramic classes when I was in grade school, I was able to successfully make over 1000 tiles! My home has appeared on HGTV's "Homes of Miami" and will be on a new show "Generation Renovation" also on HGTV in December 29, 2004 which will show the tile that this book inspired me to make!

A Reference Must Have!

I have been active in clay for more than 15 years. I stayed away from making tiles, since I also paint. This book with its gallery of color photos, its clear advice, sound directions was inspiring. At the end of the book Frank takes the reader through his journey of producing a large order of tile. It was most enlightening to see how he set up, how he refined producing tiles in mass quantities. He even included the final timeline for each step. Which side of the clay should you have it on to get it quickly to this step, etc. Extremely helpful. As most beginning clay people know, getting tiles and slabs to dry slowly and flat and not buckle in firing is difficult. I found Frank's tip on using wallboard to carve the tiles on etc, most helpful, he stated that the plaster in the wallboard helps to suck out the water from behind the tile so that the tile dries in a more even manner. When I first started drying tiles, I was using the plastic baffles, even though this allows for greater air circulation, I think using the wallboard idea, and then evenutally switching over to the plastic baffles would help. I have dried tiles completely on the wallboard as he suggested and it has worked fine. I also liked that he suggested you can stack them up to four high, wallboard-tile, wallboard-tile etc. and not to go above that. He includes instructions on how to create a tile press, which he has used at the Parson's School of Design for many years now, trouble free! The instructions were clear, step by step, and believeable. I plan to give this to my brother-in-law and see if he can produce one of these for me. The materials are readily available too. Overall, in slowly and carefully building my ceramics library, I began with purchasing only three books at first. (I have access to the public library and belong to a clay cooperative and study at a guild, all of which have tons of books on clay). If you are interested in tile making, this is the first book I purchased. It was highly recommended to me by other artists, and in looking it over at the Guild, I found it to be the most precise, detailed and gives a nice overview about the intricacies of tile making. His photos of other tiles were from a broad variety of artists and time periods. There is always more to learn, however, this is a must have reference book for anyone seriously considering making decent tiles, without having to start off with messing up on all your first efforts. For those who have been making tiles for sometime, the more advanced tips were helpful and thorough, if you know your stuff, you may want to check it out of the library first and then see whether you need a reference book. I also found Frank's own work to be exactly like his book. Carefully rendered, controlled, easily accessible, interesting to look at, nicely and fairly balanced designs, with an emphasize on realism. Good book,... for me a Reference book I know I had to have. The chapters go as follows:1.

buy this book

This was my first tile book. I have bought several others, and love many, but turn to Handmade Tiles regularly for quick information. It contains great information without that text book feeling. The tiles pictured in the book are whimsical and inspiring. If you are buying one tile book, this is the one to buy.

Best of the Lot!

I recently became interested in tiles and tile-making and ordered a half-dozen books on the topic. This was the one book I'd keep and recommend over all of the others. Frank Giorgini is a teacher's teacher! I felt like I was sitting in on one of his classes. His in-depth knowledge, step-by-step photos and explanations and clear love of the topic are inspirational. Even if you knew nothing about handmade tiles, this book would make you want to start creating them! I especially enjoyed all the examples that were created by various students - there was something for every taste and level of experience. He makes it look do-able and easy. His tips and tricks will save amateurs much suffering. After reading this book, I felt eager to begin designing and creating my own handmade tiles, and confident that I had enough knowledge to do it right. Personal note: I envy his students the opportunity to learn from Frank Giorgini!

If You Are Thinking Of Making Your Own Tiles, Start Here

The tile making techniques described in this book are very easy to understand and the color photos of various artist's tiles are inspiring. If you have any interest in handmade tile, I highly recommend this book. My favorite chapter was the one called "The Day Of One Hundred Tiles", in which the author describes how he made 600 commemerative tiles for the Tile Heritage Foundation. Anyone can make one tile---but how do you make 600 efficiently? Read this book to find out.