PCC Natural Markets

World Tablecloths

I had so much fun glazing all of the tiles with my detailed designs. I love the colors and the glossy finish! Each architectural column represents a unique culture from Kirkland’s history, with motifs based on traditional textile patterns. The Coast Salish pattern was based on a story told to me by an artist from the Tulalip tribe, and represents a cooking basket. I am thankful for their contribution and I gratefully acknowledge that I live and work on traditional Coast Salish and Lashootseed land.

  • Tree of Life Column featuring food that can be foraged from our region

  • Column representing the shipbuilding history of Kirkland

  • Plaid column, representing the historic wool mill that provided fabric to clothe people working the Klondike gold rush

  • Nordic column, illustrating the concept of hygge

  • Coast Salish column, representing the beautiful patterns on woven cooking baskets

  • Closeup of tiles from the plaid column

  • Closeup of tiles from the basket weaving pattern

  • Closeup of tiles from the hygge design. These patterns were inspired by Norwegian textiles

  • Closeup of tiles from the Tree of Life column. I really loved painting these botanical motifs

Process: Design, Painting, and Installation

After creating detailed design drawings for each column, the tiles were arranged on a large table and painted with colorful glaze then fired in batches in an electric kiln. Thank you @madeintheshadepottery for your technical expertise, @freyja_r_whitney for glazing help, and my sister Amy for production assistance.

  • The five designs, along with watercolor swatches, and resource images

  • A watercolor swatch I painted, the graphite design drawing, and historical fabric examples

  • Mapping out the 1500 tiles on graph paper

  • Glazing the hygge tiles

  • Keeping track of what tiles have been painted

  • Starting out, I printed my design using the large format printer at Kinkos, then traced through the paper with pencil

  • Handling 1500 tiles with rough edges is hard on the hands so I often wore gloves

  • Studio hygge: my best buddy Vega and a wall quilt by my friend Lara

  • Tiles in the kiln: 75 at a time. The table I was working on held 60, so there was a good rhythm between painting and firing

  • Boxing up the tiles!

  • Installation with my tile crew

  • Tile spacers

  • Using a scissor lift to reach the high places

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