gallery
Artisan Gallery 2025
Creativity quartet explores a broad range of artisan expression
by Lesley Goddin, Editorial Director and Senior Writer
In this issue, we have a quartet of very different artisan works – from a precision installation of a digital mosaic wall mural, to a shower featuring a double herringbone of handmade zellige tile, to a mosaic entryway in a 1924 Atlanta apartment building that was converted to a hotel, to a custom wedding gift made from “seconds” tile. Three of these tile artisans: Ruiz, Osterritter and Hall – have taken the Artisans Revolution in Tile training at Dragonfly Tile & Stoneworks, sponsored by NTCA and LATICRETE and have parlayed their newfound skills into a new dimension of their businesses, and our other artisan has forged a unique path through her craft. The range of “artisan” work is broad, but there is one common factor – it beautifies every setting in which it is installed.
– Lesley Goddin, lesley@tile-assn.com
NEW GYM, NEW MOSAIC
Hector Ruiz and his HR Tile team from Rifle, Colo., took on a challenging project by builder D.M. Neumen that transformed a Glenwood Springs bank into a Jean-Robert’s Gym. The renovation required a full-gut remodel from this NTCA member that included removing a large safe and cutting through concrete to add eight shower drains and recess the shower floors for proper drainage in the men’s and women’s locker rooms. Scope of work included 6' hallways in each locker room, 4' wainscoting and stone sinks. The crew used Schluter® KERDI waterproofing membrane, and a DITRA uncoupling membrane, along with FloFX drains, and tile from Daltile.
The goal was for the gym to open at the first of the year with a “new year, new me, new gym” concept so time management was crucial, complicated by a band of color that had to run through the room at a specific height, with the rest of the tile installed in a 1/3 offset pattern.
This is one of two pre-printed mosaic faces for the locker rooms by My Mosaic that was delayed in shipping leaving HR Tile only two days to install.
HR Tile installed a pre-printed digitized mosaic of faces by My Mosaic (www.my-mosaic.com) at the bathroom entrances. Shipping delays cut the time to actually install the mosaic to only two days! To further complicate matters, “When the materials finally arrived, we discovered that the template had been lost or misplaced by the general contractor,” Ruiz said. “As a result, we had to fit the pieces together like a puzzle before installation.” It took ingenuity to install the tiles since the floors and walls were 3/8" out of square, which meant tricky cuts were needed.
“We decided to start from the top down, hiding the cut edges of the tiles at the bottom,” Ruiz added. “With more black tiles in the design and black grout, we managed to camouflage the cuts and create a straighter appearance.”
The crew installed the tiles using CUSTOM ProLite® thinset row by row, adjusting the laser level whenever they started a new row. The project was finished using CUSTOM Prism® Charcoal grout.
This is the female installment of the pre-printed mosaic faces for the locker rooms by My Mosaic that was delayed in shipping leaving HR Tile only two days to install.
A band of color runs through the room at a specific height, with the rest of the tile installed in a 1/3 offset pattern.
MASTERFUL MITERING
“I had never done a double herringbone before,” said Chris Osterritter, Owner of The Tile Guys LLC/Art By Tile in Wilmerding, Pa., outside of Pittsburgh. “With that hand made tile? I didn't think it could be done until I did it!”
NTCA Member and CTI #1800 Osterritter made a template of the shower pan with drain so he could lay out the entire double herringbone pattern on the floor and ensure everything lined up. After cutting Tiles of Ezra Zellige tile to the template, he held it together with mosaic face tape during installation. Osterritter lamented his slow pace - twice as slow as he expected, only about 10-15 sq.ft. per day of field tile.
“They wanted minimal grout joints, so together with the pattern it was a real struggle,” he said. Eventually he got the hang of it and found the confidence to move on to the niches.
Osterritter wrapped the door jamb with the help of mitering, templating, hot glue and sponges!
“When I brought to the attention of the homeowner that I couldn't wrap the pattern around all sides of the niche and keep everything lined up, they simply said ‘Do your best!’” he added. “Just like the ceiling, I guess they just trusted me to make it look good.”
Wrapping the door jamb was not in the original scope of the project, but when there was no satisfactory way to trim the edge of this handmade tile, mitering was the only option left.
“When I realized that one whole tile fit perfectly in the jamb, my entire layout was done!” Osterritter said. “As for wrapping the curved doorway, I really had to take some time away to think through the process. Eventually I came up with a way to template the door using lots of hot glue and some sponges.”
The crew built the shower with wedi, installed with ARDEX, and grouted with LATICRETE.
Art by Tile also installed the bathroom floor with a hexagon limestone, and a textured green marble behind the tub. The project is progressing with installation of cabinets, but the hard work of the challenging shower installation is done!
Working with large marble pieces and adding accents to bring out the tones in the stone.
Working with large marble pieces and adding accents to bring out the tones in the stone.
RESTORING A 100-YEAR OLD ENTRYWAY
Sarah Wandrey of Sarah Wandrey Mosaics (sarahwandrey.com) in Rockwall, Texas, wasn’t always the mosaicist she’s been for the last four years. In fact, she initially owned her own law firm, eventually quitting her practice to be a full-time mom to her three children. She took a mosaic class in 2014 “to get a break from the housework and the babies,” she said. “I have always made art in my spare time – it’s always been my hobby. But something about mosaics just grabbed me and wouldn’t let go.”
She feels lucky to have studied with Barbara Dybala at Hidden Mosaics weekly for three years, learning large-scale, outdoor architectural mosaics, assisting her on her huge murals and sculptures. She also recently took a week-long class in the reverse paper-faced method with the famed Londoner Gary Drostle at the Chicago Mosaic School, a class that “changed everything about my practice.” Today, Wandrey’s business dovetails into fine art mosaics, and the architectural side that can include house numbers or murals, floors and gardens. “This year, I found myself in a couple of historic restoration projects, which is a whole niche within a niche,” she said.
This before view shows the extent of the damage to the original entryway mosaic.
Detail and closeup of the finished word “Granada”.
This brings us to the historic restoration of Atlanta’s Hotel Granada, which was built as apartments in 1924 and converted this year to a hotel. When the original mosaic entryway was damaged, Wandrey was called in to recreate it.
Wandrey created a pattern, mailing back and forth with Shell McElroy, the Atlanta-based construction company “until the dimensions were perfect.” She then set out to color-match the original tile with porcelain tile as close as possible in color and finish, using some existing pieces the builder had chiseled out. This was a huge challenge since it was all done offsite.
“Once we had the pattern and tile, my assistant and I constructed most of the mosaic in my studio using the reverse paper-face method,” she explained. “ Their project manager took sample tiles and paper patterns onsite, and we used Facetime to talk through all the subtleties in great detail. Finally, I went onsite to chisel out the damage, install the premade sections, and cut in the edge pieces one by one.”
The other big challenge was that the site of the mosaic – which recreated the “Granada” name in a signature font -- is the major entryway for the hotel, and required hotel staff to reroute guests to a side entrance as Wandrey worked really long days to try to minimize disruption to the hotel. “In the end, everyone was generous and kind, and we wound up having some great conversations with guests who enjoyed learning about the process,” she said.
She’s grateful to the tile suppliers: American Restoration Tile (restorationtile.com), a USA-based manufacturer of custom historical tile, and Heritage Tile (heritagetile.com). American Restoration Tile has a standard colors palette that’s designed to match 100-year-old American porcelain mosaics, as well as custom color-matched porcelain tile. Heritage Tile offers Winckelman’s porcelain in gorgeous colors, and a tremendous staff. QEP donated cutting and installation tools, and Wandrey used thinset and grout by CUSTOM.
The project stretched 11 weeks from first contact to the last day of installation, with the mosaic itself taking four weeks to complete and eight days to install. The end result is an artfully refreshed entryway with a historic vibe that greets hotel visitors.
The full view of Wandrey’s Granada restored mosaic entryway. Tiles from American Restoration Tile and Heritage Tile enabled Wandrey to create an authentic historic vibe.
MARRYING CREATIVITY AND TILE "MISFITS"
According to her company’s Facebook page, Natalie Hall, of Artistry in Tile LLC in Hudson, Wis., is on a mission “to bring ART back into the world of TILE, one job at a time.” She recently married her creativity, a stash of tiles from a summer Mercury Mosaics warehouse sale and a desire to create a unique wedding gift for friends, into a gorgeous framed mosaic for their home.
Inspiration hit as she was organizing her shelves of tile and came up with the idea of a black and dark green floral/fauna piece. She initially used a design in the Cricut Design Studio and when finalized, cut the designs out of sticker-like vinyl which she adhered to the tile.
Her Gemini Taurus 3 ring saw gave her great maneuverability to cut the small inside curves around the letters and in the field tile behind the leaves. “My favorite cut of the whole project was the subway tile behind the ‘Mr. And Mrs.’ – it was effortless on the Taurus ring saw,” she said.
This before view shows the extent of the damage to the original entryway mosaic.
After cutting, she used her variable speed grinder with a 200 grit diamond polishing pad to smooth the cut edges of each piece, and a diamond finger bit on her Dremel to get into the contours of the intricate pieces, smoothing out the rough edges around the tight corners. Her Hydro-Tail universal water-controlled attachment “gave me a controlled mist aimed at the tile and grinder while I was grinding, which helped tremendously to reduce silica dust while doing that,” she explained.
The next step was carefully piecing everything together on her work table and applying mosaic face tape to keep the pieces in place. She then “carefully flipped my piece upside down, spread an even coat of thinset mortar onto Go Board as well as the back of the mosaic, and then pressed the backer board down onto the piece. I flipped the piece back over and let it cure 24 hours before grouting it in black.”
The design takes shape.
Even the reverse side of the mosaic is a work of art.
She found an exact fit with a custom-ordered wooden frame from arttoframes.com, to which she adhered brackets on the frame back and a French cleat for hanging over her friends’ fireplace. “I am so happy with how it turned out and they were so excited to receive the gift,” she said. “They absolutely love it!”
Since she was using handmade tile, there are irregularities and imperfections in these “misfit” tiles (as Mercedes Austin, founder of Mercury Mosaics called them). Hall likes using these tiles because “...it adds that much more humanness to the final product, as well as gives these ‘seconds’ tiles a new purpose,” she said. “The tile is made from clay that actually comes out of the Mississippi River here in Minneapolis, which I think is so cool!”
This project gave her the opportunity to expand her range of services, and she’s now taking orders for similar custom designs for clients, shipped directly to contractors for installation in a kitchen backsplash, shower niche, or as an art piece to hang on the wall. A website is in the works, but for now, reach out to Hall at her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/p/Artistry-in-Tile-LLC-61552411426892/.
The finished piece features Mercury Mosaic “misfit” tiles, and tile artistry by Natalie Hall.