Whistling Frog Tile

Love it. Fire beats ice everytime!

Olivia's Tile Tile & Stone

Rick's line blend for Olivia's tile project. Calcium & Lithium fluxed glaze. #ceramics #whistlingfrogtile #glaze

A silver background with a pile of 17 hand embroidered sardines all facing the same way - in profile facing to the right.

"Packed Like Sardines 3"
Hand embroidery thread painting artwork
Back with me after being in an exhibition and now on my website
www.emilytull.co.uk/store/p307/p...
#embroidery #WildlifeArt #fish

Amazing work on your website. Thanks for sharing!

homesick 🌕 all bunnies come from the moon right?

#illustration #bunnies #oilpainting

A birds-eye view of one portion of the tile mural. This shows swirling ribbons of blue colors. Navy blue, sky blue, aqua, and white in spirals that are broken up to create small, mostly rectangle shapes. These aren't grouted in yet. They wait, alligned in their proper spiral order during the layout process. Though you can't see it, all of these ceramic glazed shapes are numbered on the back. This corresponds to a map that Rick has. Imagine a long scroll of paper laid over slabs of clay that were joined together. Hubert has a 'pouncing tool'. This makes small holes in the paper that follow Rick's lines. Then they use a small bag filled with charcoal and gently tap it along the lines of the mural. All that dust filters through the holes and creates outlines. Next the paper is removed. A small loop tool is used for a beginning cut. This goes down through the clay about halfway. Why? Well, sometimes the tool breaks if you're cutting through too much clay. Also, not all cuts are meant to go through the clay. There are 'fake grout lines'. These are lines within each piece. Finally, a releasing cut is made to separate the pieces. The last step is numbering each piece before drying on boards. A baker's rack is handy for this. The tiled part of the obelisk is 13 feet tall, and still can be seen in Southfield today.

We fabricate the tile for murals. Dr. Hubert Massey
hubertmasseymurals.net designed an obelisk of tile for the City of Southfield, MI. Rick decided where the cuts needed to be within the composition.

Sugar Hill Clay Studio's large worktable is taken up by ridged clay tiles. Some of these measure up to 2 feet long. The clay extruder is shown, mounted to the edge of the table. We bisque fired the clay tiles here and glaze fired at the Ferndale house. The renovation project was for an entire storefront.

There is nothing like seeing our work become part of the Detroit skyline. 🏙️✨ In 2013, Rick and Tonya were busy at Sugar Hill Clay working the clay extruder, handcrafting tiles for a renovation in Eastern Market on Gratiot.
#DetroitMade #EasternMarket #HandmadeTile #WhistlingFrog #SugarHillClay

kingfisher

For today’s #BirdOfTheDay alternative theme #ShortLeggedBirds set by @robcrank68.bsky.social

Can some one point where the legs are? 😂

#kingfisher
#birds
#birdphotography
#wildlifephotography
#sonya7c
#tamron50400mm

a hand crank arbor press in our studio next to our tile stamps with our bird feeder in the window. since this is a clay studio, all of our stuff is really dusty. we have a few plants in the window that tolerate our dust. One is a tropical plant that we thought would behave like a vining plant, but since we aren't tropical, we see only five or so of the varigated leaves. Our friend down the street gave us a iron candleholder, that lacks a candle & it's sitting next to the plant. The weather outside, seen through the window is wintery. Snow covers the parking lot and is resting on the pines. It's very peaceful because the town we live in pretty much shuts down in winter and wakes up in the summer when there is no ice on the lake. There's a jar of alumina in front of the window that we use to dust the molds if they have any moisture. It looks like I left the scraper for the countertop out. Like in a kitchen, if you use a scraper on your countertop, it stays cleaner. Well, as much as you can expect in a Clay studio, so there's that. A few of our plaster molds that make our tiles are shown here. Not very well though, I'll have to post more, so stay tuned. Sometimes it feels like we live in a far corner of the world, so if you can endure my character count, tune back in to our feed. I'll try not to be boring!

Arbor press means we can still work if the power goes out! It's 2000 lbs / Square inch of pressure, but easy to use. If you are still pounding your clay in by hand and your wrist or elbows complain, try one of these.
#tiletuesday #ceramics #handmade

Hermit Crab Art Tile — Whistling Frog Tile Company Behold the ultimate symbol of a cozy home with our handcrafted 4x4" Hermit Crab Art Tile. Featuring high-relief detail of a crab in its shell, this Michigan-made porcelain piece is a premium choice fo...

Take care of your shell so you can take care of others. 🌊

This little Hermit Crab tile is a reminder that finding refuge and rest is the first step toward strength. Hand-sculpted with love and ready to hang.

#Wellness #NatureArt #Ceramics #MichiganArtist

Hadn't heard of glaze bombs! Looks like you can hone in on different glaze combos. Love the shelf saving glaze channel at the bottom of the cone.

Oak Leaf Art Tile — Whistling Frog Tile Company Transform your interior with our handcrafted 4x4" Oak Leaf Art Tile. Featuring high-relief botanical detail, this Michigan-made porcelain piece is a premium choice for custom backsplashes and designer...

There is a quiet power in the Oak. 🌳 It doesn't just survive the storm; it grows stronger because of it.
Strong roots, steady growth. 🍃
The Oak tree stands as a testament to what we can endure and become.
#Endurance #GoodVibes #WhistlingFrog

"Gearing up" means something a little different in our studio. 🛠️
www.whistlingfrog.net/urban-indust...
#WhistlingFrogTile #InteriorDesign #Sculpture

A graphic layout of a tile fireplace and hearth. The shapes of the tiles are squares, diamonds, and rectangles. The colors are turquoise, purple, pink, maroon, a sage chartreuse, and shiny luster tiles too. The arrangement Rick designed added a bit of fun with the bright colors.

The arrangement Rick designed added a bit of fun with the bright colors. We make sure there are no cut edges. Super custom! #tile #backsplash #fireplace

Thank you!

A lightbulb is shown in front of a ceramic lamp. The words tariff tax are next to it.

A ceramic lamp is shown the words in front of it say tariff tax made our one dollar special fit lightbulbs…

Now cost us $14 each. In the background of the picture show shows another ceramic lamp.

Another ceramic lamp is shown. It is cool. The text in front of it says we won’t be producing any lamps until the tariffs are lifted. We cannot justify passing this cost onto our customers.

Rick made his entire urban industrial accent lamp line around this lightbulb. They have an amazing streamlined fit and last a lifetime. As LEDs, they are energy efficient. #smallbusiness #tariff #artists

#Shakespeare #spring #sculpture new tile line of botanicals. Saffron crocus.

Asking American citizens how to solve judicial problems our society faces is a heavy burden. Is Vance asking us to stop working & tending our children to learn every aspect of criminal law, dutifully & fairly, (for the good of all citizens) & know all ramifications of our decisions? Can we ask AI?

#march

We love living by a #nationalpark: Sleeping Bear Dunes
For an up-to-date discussion on national parks listen to today’s episode on Pantsuits and Lawsuits with Attorneys General Kris Mayes & Dana Nessel

We love our #local #libraries! When searching for inspiration for our next #Botanical #Tile line, I was able to consult #Shakespeare via #melcat. #whistlingfrogtile #travesecity #puremichigan #library #literature special thanks to the author Gerit Quealy, illustrator Sumié Hasegawa-Collins. #flowers

Mural tip: smooth edges with a scrubby pad
#art #ceramics #whistlingfrogtile #visitalden #puremichigan #traversecity #madeinmichigan #love #torchlake #handmadetile #detroitzoo #murals #hubertmasseymurals #rickpruckler #publicart

Right on!

If I had the spare time, I would create a small card to put in each of my packages that I sent out from website sales. The card would have shoppable links of tile and ceramic artists so the buyer could feel more connected to a strong resource of authentic makers. Argh.. I wish for time!⏳

Your tiles are sweet! We’re seeing a lot of support too from out of state buyers looking at my ticket line I see Michigan times3 Oregon, California, North Carolina Calgary Canada elbows up!

Change is coming. Be fabulous.
#change #fabulous

Love the front porch, birds! Looking forward to more posts🐦‍⬛

Wyandotte Michigan porcelain art tile in aqua blue glaze

Inspiring speech!#ElizabethSlotkin from #WyandotteMI

#suit #retired #old we will be officially breaking this mold. This tile is no longer available. If you possess a suit Tile by us now it is an artifact. #Ukraine

#DetroitZoo mural in the works.
#HubertMassey designs, #RickPruckler: fabrication and glaze formulation, #TonyaLutz: glazing and re-fires. #publicart #zoo #detroit