Cinca wins! and other thoughts on porcelain tiles…

Here is a detail shot of the beginning of the background.  I ended up choosing the matte black Cinca tiles (unglazed porcelain) over the glossy vitreous.  The leaves at the bottom are darker, and will gradually get lighter as I move up the piece.  I felt that the glossy tile would totally swallow up the darker greens.  I can never be sure I’ve made the right decision on something like this until it’s finished, so we’ll just have to wait and see, but I think it’s going to be ok.

And on a completely different subject (well, not completely different), I have been pondering handmade tiles lately.  I made a few of the polymer clay tiles, but I’m thinking of glazed porcelain in the style of the arts and crafts tradition, or a modern take on the style. See some examples HERE and HERE.   I think I would really love to be able to make tiles like that, although I don’t know what I’d do with them.  But I also think I’d like to be able to make some stuff along these lines to include in mosaics:
These are pottery shards which have been out of stock from a supplier for over a year.  They still have the purples in stock (and I have some, which were added to Pictures of Lily), but I’m not the purply type.  I really *NEED* these other colors for my mosaics.  I have thought about just trying to replicate them in polymer clay, but I don’t much like cutting down the polymer clay into smaller things ~~ I’d much rather just make them the size I intend to use.  I love the texture of these as much as the colors, but what’s a girl to do?  I think I have to talk it over with the local pottery guru, Sally Cornwell.  Hmmmm.