Deborah Osburn and her Watermark Collection for clé and Tilevera
(Sausalito, CA)…….clé is proud to introduce the Watermark Collection, designed by Deborah Osburn for Tilevera. The collection of hand crafted porcelain tile was inspired by Japanese textile dying techniques.
Osburn has expanded the traditional indigo color to include gold verdigris, which becomes turquoise as the dye travels. Each unglazed tile is hand cut, fired and dyed, which allows the tile to absorb the pigments differently, making each tile completely unique. The tiles are available in 3″ x 6″, 4″ x 8″, and 6″ x 12″ and can be installed indoors or out, on walls and floors.
Deborah Osburn says about her collection,
The process is very japanesque. Several pools of indigo dye are created and each and every tile is hand dipped into one of the indigo pools. Then the tiles are allowed to sit in the dye for several days to absorb varying gradations of the indigo. Every tile takes on its own personality absorbing the dye in its own individual way. Some are stubborn and won’t absorb much at all. Others are wildly flamboyant drawing up a lot of the indigo into thin shades of the dye and then others are moderate, soaking up line after line of color creating multiple horizons. It’s really indigo magic- something like tea leaves but with indigo and tile not brewed water and leaves. A method that reveals each tile’s individual DNA.
Deborah Osburn, who has her BFA in sculpture, has been designing and manufacturing tile for the past twenty-five years for her company Tilevera. In 2012 she started clé, the international artisan tile e-boutique. The tiles on clé are as distinct as the artists who create them. It is Osburn’s goal to provide a forum for discovery and conversation about what she loves most, tiles created by impassioned artists creating remarkable surfaces. The Watermark Collection is available exclusively on cletile.com (415) 887-9011.
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[Press Release]