Sweet Earth Handmade Tiles

The Extraordinary Ceramic Tiles of Kasie Clemmons

BY VIRGINIA HANCOCK

Kasie Clemmons makes handmade ceramic tiles in the studio of Sweet Earth Tiles in Fairfield, Iowa.(Photo by Mark Paul Petrick)

Artist and quiltmaker Kasie Clemmons of Fairfield, Iowa, is taking on handmade ceramic tile—and courageously stretching her aesthetic and professional boundaries. Using methods fine artisans have employed for centuries, Clemmons’s Sweet Earth Tiles merges the old with the new. Pressing and pounding plastic clay into one-of-a-kind tile molds that she’s created over the past two years, Clemmons avoids the uniform, “machine-perfect” effect of dry-press molds that tile manufacturers rely on. “The slight variations inherent in handmade, hand-glazed tile create an overall vitality and richness that machines cannot replicate,” she says.

Earlier this year, Revelations Cafe in Fairfield, Iowa, exhibited rectangular blocks of Sweet Earth tiles, mounting them like small artworks on the walls of the restaurant to give a glimpse of possible designs and colors, and inspiring visions of tile-enhanced rooms. “Each is like a little painting in itself,” said Revelations staff member Celeste Neff.

Visitors to Revelations aren’t the only ones with tile on the mind—the use of tile in homes is increasing nationally. In fact, a small request for a friend’s home planted the seed for Sweet Earth Tiles a few years ago. A friend wanted Clemmons—then an adjunct ceramics professor at Maharishi University of Management—to try her hand at painting tiles for her shower. Her friend loved the tiles and Clemmons loved the process. A vivid new business idea was born.

Using both white stoneware and red earthenware clays, she dove into experimentation with the clay-glaze relationship, introducing herself to lower-temperature glazes (cone 6) that replaced the high-fired glazes (cone 10) to which she was accustomed. She researched and learned mold making, conjured up her unique glaze smorgasbord, and worked out designs, color combinations, and pricing.

Brainstorming ideas with Clemmons is enough to make potential customers giddy just thinking about the possibilities. Clemmons explains how her tiles can cover a kitchen wall, frame fireplaces, encircle pools and spas, or border entryways, adding a warm, vibrant zest to any room.

Using opaque, crackle, translucent, and clear glazes in complementary combinations, Clemmons is proud of the flexibility and predictability she can offer. “Handmade artisan tile is a custom product,” she says. “That means that designs and glazes can be combined in unique ways to suit a customer’s individual needs, which is something you just can’t do with stock tile. That’s also part of what makes this fun, challenging, and interesting for me. . . . As a creative person, I love the discovery process.”

Toward that end, new designs are in the works. And in keeping with the national trend toward green architecture, Clemmons is pondering a line of tiles made from local clay, adding to the “greenness” of tile’s already non-toxic, non-out-gassing nature.

Though confident about her current capabilities, Clemmons acknowledges that she is still learning. “Turning art into a business has given me many challenges, and if I’d known how high the learning curve would be, I might have chickened out. A little mystery is a good thing!”

Yet Clemmons seems more all-knowing than she gives herself credit for. The telltale creative confidence, delicacy, and skill that shine through her tiles did not come by accident. She entered her new endeavor well-equipped with a history of working with her hands to beautify the home.

A painting major at college in her native state of Indiana, she remembers spending just as much time in the clay studio. As a quilt-maker for more than nine years, Clemmons sold her work in Santa Fe galleries to buyers across the country and therein helped support her three, now grown children. Familiar with combining colors and textures into a pleasing whole, she has brought these skills into her new business. “Tile-making combines my love of ceramics, painting, and quilting into one art form,” she says. “I’m still using colors within a grid structure, but the medium is clay instead of cloth.”

Clemmons’s masterful tackling of multi-dimensionality is particularly evident on her bas-relief tiles, where definition emerges as the same glaze appears lighter on the convex portion and darker in the pooled, imprinted crevices. Clemmons also creates painted tiles, featuring the clay body as a flat painting surface, and interlocking tiles, otherwise known as freeform tiles. She relies on her quilter’s eye for gracefully interlocking these non-square tiles, which can frame mirrors like the one she’s currently working on that contains 13 different shapes.

Her designs span traditional to whimsical, elegant to comical. “The cherry design is kind of funny and sweet, and retro,” she says. “It’s probably the one I’d put in my own kitchen.” Pointing out a display image in her new catalog that tastefully marries two sea-related motifs, she says, “The octopus goes well with the squid.”

While ordering tile is simple and quick for customers, carrying out orders takes time and diligent work. The raw lump of clay that begins the tile-making process must first be wedged, rolled out, and perfectly pressed into a Clemmons mold before it is evenly and completely dried in preparation for bisque-firing. Then comes glazing, glaze firing, and the moment of evaluation, when Clemmons discards tiles that are flawed beyond her exacting standards. Although she has discovered ways to minimize warping, “I still cross my fingers every time for no tile casualties.” The result is a batch of high-end, handmade tile that she believes is worth the time, effort, and money.

As an artist setting up her own business, Clemmons has met new challenges with the same grace and finesse that characterize her tiles. “Business requires different skills than making art, but I’m discovering that it’s very creative in its own way. It’s fun bringing people together, each with their own fortes, to help Sweet Earth Tiles succeed. Maybe I will even be an employer to extra sets of hands if the tile demand becomes too much to handle alone! Now it’s a matter of continuing to bring the bajillion of important little pieces together, and getting orders. What a great adventure!”

For more about handmade ceramic tiles by Kasie Clemmons, visit www.sweetearthtiles.com.

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