When Tzadi Turrou talks tile it’s with more than 25 years of experience. The Burnsville resident designs and creates her colorful tiles as smaller, decorative items and larger, architectural pieces. "So many of my tiles are pictures," Turrou said. "I do landscapes, graphic images, nature and flowers."

The tiles can be used as trivets and coasters or mounted on the wall. Many are framed. Turrou also makes custom tile for kitchens, fireplaces, floors and bathrooms. She made functional clay pottery before becoming interested in working with tile about 25 years ago while living in Arizona.

"I really enjoy working with clay," Turrou said. "(Tile) was another functional use of the material, which has extensive historical references. It was very enlightening starting to work in tile because I could do large pieces made up of smaller, modular components."

Turrou said awareness of possibilities with using tile is growing in the United States.

"In Europe tiles are used extensively in the house," she said. "In this country custom tile work is just emerging as an art form."

Much of Turrou’s work falls in the Arts and Crafts style, which was used in bungalows from the early 1900s. That handmade approach style was in response to the industrialization of America and features glazes rich in color and texture.

"I am one of the very few people working in the Arts and Crafts style using what is an old Moorish technique," she said.

Turrou has developed a formula for a black wax resist line mixture critical to her cuerda seca technique, which involves silk screening the black line on the already-fired clay. She then applies the glazes with eyedroppers within the areas created by the resist line.

The Grove Park Inn in Asheville even asked Turrou to create a numbered series from some of its 87-year-old roof tiles that were replaced in 2000. She glazed the tiles with an early image of the inn and stamped each to indicate its authenticity.

"I’ve been doing this so long that the quality of my work stands out," she said.

The quality of Turrou’s work has allowed her to work out of her home studio.

"I’m earning a living as a single mom," she said. "I have been able to care for my children and work from home. I have worked for a living, and I much prefer being my own boss."

Some of the galleries displaying Turrou’s tile work in addition to Hands Gallery include the Stickley Museum Shops in Parsipanny, N.J.; Gallery of the Mountains at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville; The Crimson Laurel Gallery in Bakersville; Toe River Crafts in Celo; Bungalow Basics in Snohomish, Wash.; and Eastwood Gallery in Minneapolis.

BACK TO 2004 SHOW SCHEDULE