Tiles

Newcastle Arts Centre Tile project 1983 - 88

David Fry set up the project and supervised a team of people to design, make, and lay decorative tiling for the whole of the new Arts Centre complex, which was converted largely from a group of 18th century buildings set around a courtyard. The tiles were produced in the traditional way, hand-made, in terracotta clay (with some of the clay being dug on site) one inch thick, pressed in wooden frame-moulds. Designs were inlayed with white clay, coloured slips or glazes deep into the tile; the patterns  will wear for at least 500years. They were reduction fired with gas and wood to a temperature of 1140 Centigrade. I based the designs on tiles I've seen in the Moorish Palaces in Spain, Brinkburn Priory in Northumberland, to name a few, and my own inspiration/interpretation; a lot of the designs are original. The project took 5 years, and was selected for the BBC design awards in 1987. As well as the Tile project, I conducted all the archaeological work on the Arts Centre site, discovering a Roman Milecastle.

group of small glazed stoneware tiles that I currently make

The Arts Centre entrance leading to the arts material shop and gallery.

onto Mosaic Project onto Archaeology   onto  Vases      onto Plates     or back Home