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From top left: 8 inch ceramic Burne-Jones mermaid, 8 x 6 inch tile from Days of Creation third day angels, 6- and 4- inch light tumbled marble Forest Animal tiles, 6-inch De Morgan School of Fish tile, and 6-inch Red Lustre Owls, 6-inch Charles Rennie Mackintosh Pansy and Wood Violet tile on "high character" marble. There are variations in stone from batch to batch, but I have tried to pick extreme light and extreme dark tiles here. Most are somewhere in between, but I will try to pull blanks based on your preferences.
All the tiles here are decorative tile. What that means: It means, at its essence, that you can't walk, ice skate, or use it for utility. Tiles for those purposes have a different rating, and these aren't that. You can install them in kitchens as a border or backsplash, bathroom showers and baths, as fireplace overmantels or side panels. You can even install them on your hearth, assuming you aren't wearing your golf cleats while walking on your hearth.
Generally, if you are comfortable with the temperture, the tiles will be, also. The tile glazes will deteriorate at 400 degrees F. I have tested this personally by placing a completed tile in an oven for half an hour at 400, and indeed there was considerable fading. If you are from a planet where your usual living environment is 400 degrees, you should probably buy tiles locally. I am not sure how much cold the tiles can tolerate, but they are ceramic so I suspect it is more the repeated freezes and thaws that stress the structure of the tile. I have placed completed tiles in my home freezer for a month and they have come through with any problem, but I don't know how many times they would stand up to this.
Exterior applications: I do have one type of blank that is suitable for a garden, if you live in a temperate climate and install it in a protected area like Morris's Pilgrim's Rest porch. If you live where the weather can be extreme, then relief tiles made for exterior application are safer.
You can clean them with any non-abrasive cleanser, such as vinegar and water and a soft cloth. Even an abrasive cleanser or rigorous use of a scrubbie will not hurt the color; it is baked in. But abrasive products will make the glaze appear duller, and probably not uniformly. Like polished marble, you're more concerned with the polish than the integrity of the tile.
Applications: Ceramic tile is suitable for any interior wall, shower, fireplace panel or backsplash. They are non-porous and do not require sealing. In kitchens and showers, you'll want to seal the grout.
I have a few different suppliers of blanks at the moment, with varying weights and thickness. Estimated thickness is 1/4 inch to 3/8 inch. I'm in love with some 4.25 inch blanks from Spain at the current moment, but they are 1/4 inch so if you need thicker tiles, tell me. Do know that it isn't necessary to have all one's tiles the same thickness. Any good installer is used to dealing with variations in thickness and will just build up the mastic a bit on the thinner tiles. The blanks from Spain heat evenly and take color well and I'm sure you'll love them.
With differences in thickness, comes a variation in weight.
Size: 4.25 inch tiles (10.8 cm) (no spacers)
Thickness: 1/4 inch (.635 cm) to 3/8 inch (.95 cm)
Weight: Approximately 5 ounces(141 grams) to 6 ounces (168 grams) each tile
Also available with spacers: 4.31 inch tiles (10.9 cm) (including .03 in spacers)Size: 6.00 inch square tiles (15.25 cm) (no spacers)
Thickness: 1/4 inch (.635 cm) to 3/8 inch (.95 cm)
Weight: 9 ounces (255 grams) to 11 ounces (326 grams) each tile
Also available with spacers: 6.062 inch square tiles (15.4 cm) (including .03 in spacers)
Size: 6.03 x 7.9 inch square tiles ( cm) (no spacers)
Thickness: 1/4 inch (.635 cm) to 3/8 inch (.95 cm)
Weight: Approximately 14 ounces (397 grams) each tile
Size: 7 7/8 x 7 7/8 inch square tiles ( cm) (no spacers)
Thickness: 1/4 inch (.635 cm) to 3/8 inch (.95 cm)
Weight: Approximately 20 ounces (567 grams) each tile
Applications: Like ceramic tile, tumbled marble tiles are suitable for interior walls, showers, fireplaces, and backsplashes. They are porous and do require sealing. I like "Enrich n Seal" in a soft semi-gloss. However, matte and high gloss are also available. If you like the semi-gloss, we can seal them for you, but your installer may have a sealer that he or she particularly likes. Sealing brings out the "character" in the tile so the veining shows more. It also darkens the tile a bit.
Tumbled tiles also clean up nicely with any non-abrasive cleanser, such as vinegar and water and a soft cloth.
Size: 4 inch square tiles (10 cm) (no spacers)
Thickness: 3/8 inch (1 cm)
Weight: 8 ounces (227 grams) each tile
Size: 5.95 inch square tiles (15.12 cm) (no spacers)
Thickness: 3/8 inch (1 cm)
Weight: 11.5 ounces (326 grams) each tile
Applications: These tiles come on 6-inch sheets. They are uniformly spaced on the mesh. Their applications re the same as the larger ceramic tiles. They also clean up nicely with any non-abrasive cleanser, such as vinegar and water and a soft cloth.
These are the only blanks I have that are suitable for porches and gardens. In temperate climates, these can be installed in a protected area, out of direct sunlight, protected from freezes and thaws. You could do this in Florida, Southern California, or Texas. This year, in the Willamette Valley in Oregon, they would have been fine. However, we get an ice storm every few years and they would not stand up to that.
These are matte tiles. They can be sealed with a glossy sealer, for a more traditional ceramic tile appearance.
Size: 1 x 1 inch square tiles
Thickness: 1/4 inch (.635 cm)
Weight: 9 ounces ( grams) each tile
Thickness: 1/4 inch (.635 cm)
Weight: 11 ounces ( grams) each tile
Thickness: 1/4 inch (.635 cm)
Weight: 9.76 ounces (276 grams) each tile
custom tiles and colors, bespoke tiles
care and installation instructions (ceramic) (pdf)
care and installation instructions (tumbled marble) (pdf)
applications, weights and dimensions
