Firsthand restoration journey from the Relic Asylum workbench — projects in progress.
This one is personal. After a long haul, the kitchen is nearly finished — and it turned out weird, beautiful, and completely full of history. It is built, almost wall to wall, from salvaged American art tile, three makers and three states meeting in one room. The red field — Nabisco Mansion, St. Louis The…
On a country path, under a soft crackled sky, a fair-haired boy in a blue jacket and brown breeches reaches toward a man in a tall hat and apron, his pie-case balanced on a folding stand. Behind them a village rolls down to a church spire and a stand of autumn trees. It is the…
People sometimes think “tiles with past lives” is just a turn of phrase. This is the set that proves it isn’t. The set A fireplace surround by the United States Encaustic Tile Company of Indianapolis — soft floral relief glazed a warm rose-terracotta, its blossoms a mix of roses, cherry, and dahlia, with a decorative…
A parlor stove, faced in the apple-blossom art tiles of the Low works, found not in a parlor but in the wilderness — abandoned, rusting, its tiles cracked by cold and time. Getting it out meant dragging it across a frozen lake in the dead of a northern winter. This is the story of that…
Four flamingos lift from a tropical waterscape — two at the center with their wings thrown wide, a third standing in elegant profile, a fourth dipping its head below the waterline. Palm fronds sweep in from the upper corners; marsh grass anchors the bottom; a driftwood branch curves along the lower left. It is a…