Reflecting back to September 1970, the stash of Malibu Potteries tiles, exposed to nature following the wild fire in Malibu Canyon, went unnoticed for nearly a decade with just a handful of scavengers and collectors drawn in by the colorful glazed surfaces strewn across the hillside above the popular Surfrider Beach. Decorative handcrafted tiles? There was no market for them at that time.

Malibu Ceramic Works Topanga, Calif. Coincidentally, a few other tile collectors arranged an exhibition for these ceramic gems from the 1920s opening in 1980 at the Craft and Folk Art Museum in downtown Los Angeles. The result was a growing demand for ceramic tiles with designs and colors that reflected the vitality and brilliance of the 1920s and 1930s when the Malibu Potteries and other tile makers had flourished in Southern California.

Over the years the company has continued to specialize in custom work in addition to offering many of the historic Malibu patterns and designs as well as standard field tiles and trim shapes. What distinguishes Malibu Ceramic Works, and differentiates it from others, is that it was the first in the modern era to reproduce the now-famous Malibu and Catalina tiles from scratch, as handmade decorative tiles.