Writing for The New York Times, Lori Holcomb-Holland featured the Watermark Collection in an article titled “Soaking Up the Local Color.” In the piece, she wrote, “Deborah Osburn began making colorful tiles to brighten up a mostly beige-domi- nated industry nearly 30 years ago. And though in recent years she has been selling other artists’ designs, she has returned to her creative roots with the Watermark Collection for Tilevera, her artisan tile company. Inspired by Japanese techniques, she pro- duced the ombré-stained tiles by placing unglazed porcelain into a cup of indigo and waiting for the dye to be absorbed.
“’I watched every day to see what it would do,’ she said of the initial experiment. ‘At first it was dark and intense, then it began to fade. I remember pulling it out and thinking it was the most beautiful, natural, crazy tile we’d ever created.’ The tiles come in indigo or gold verdigris in three sizes and four styles: dip, wash, stroke and stain. They range from $59 to $68 a square foot.” They are available through clé.
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The collection page on the clé tile site quotes the company’s founder and creative director, deborah osburn, as saying she has spent her career producing tiles.the act of tile making, along with an affection for art, fashion and design inform deborah’s tile collections. She goes on to say this about her point of view:
“i enjoy melding opposites- creating historical themes using modern technologies or developing current styles made from archaic methods. for me, the process of making tiles is as significant as the finished product. i’m lucky. everyday i get to take those passions and figure out new ways to produce tile from the depths of my tile making inspirations. because i’ve been exploring this for some time, that well of inspiration runs deep. ”