{"id":942,"date":"2007-12-05T22:11:15","date_gmt":"2007-12-06T03:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/catchingfireflies.com\/blog\/?p=942"},"modified":"2007-12-05T22:11:15","modified_gmt":"2007-12-06T03:11:15","slug":"timeless-tiles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.catchingfirefliesgifts.com\/blog\/2007\/12\/timeless-tiles\/","title":{"rendered":"timeless tiles"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Gretchen7\"Meet Gretchen Kramp<\/a> of Royal Oak, Michigan.  She crafts wonderful decorative tiles that are truly timeless.\"Gretchen2\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

Gretchen graduated from the College for Creative Studies<\/a> in Detroit<\/span> in 1991 with a Bachelors of Fine Art majoring in painting and sculpture. At the time she was doing mixed media assemblages on wood, 3D paintings of sorts. \"Gretchen3\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

She didn’t really acquire an interest in clay until she was out of school and working for local ceramicist Marcia Hovland<\/a>.  Through her, she was introduced to quite a few craftspeople making a living from their artwork and became more familiar with Pewabic Pottery<\/a>, Detroit’s great local paradigm of Arts and Crafts style handmade tile. <\/p>\n

\"Gretchen4\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

Gretchen’s first tiles were just a batch of Christmas presents she made in December of 1994.   She was immediately hooked.\"Gretchen5\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

In addition to selling her tiles at gallery and art fairs, Gretchen has designed and created two amazing installations for the Detroit Zoo<\/a> – The National Amphibian Conservation Center.\"Gretchen6\"<\/a>..<\/p>\n

…and the Artic Ring of Life.<\/p>\n

A portion of her artist statement reads, "Clay is a wonderful material that really lets an artist have her way with it!  Glazing, on the other hand is a difficult beast to tame. I mix my own glazes and it’s taken a lot of experimentation to figure out what works with my designs.<\/p>\n

The best part of working in clay is opening up the kiln after firing a load of work. You never know exactly how things are going to look and it’s kind of like Christmas morning. (except once in a while I do get that lump of coal!)<\/p>\n

The nice thing about being an artist is that I can incorporate any current interests I have into my work, whether it be entomology or motherhood, so I can’t imagine being bored. There are always new directions to explore and I’m are only limited by my imagination. (And budgets… And time….Ha!)"\"Gretchen_11\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

I personally own over a dozen of Gretchen’s wonderful tiles.  I especially like her little 2×2 gems that I sprinkle all over the house – like above our his & hers<\/em> bathrobe hooks…\"Gretchen1\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

…and our front door light switch and guest bathroom soap dish.<\/p>\n

\"Gretchen12\" We carry a small selection of Gretchen’s work at our Berkley & Rochester locations<\/a> as well as her firefly tile<\/a> online.<\/p>\n

You can see her full display of tiles at her holiday home show<\/span><\/strong> this December 7th, 8th & 9th Friday 6-9, Saturday 10-5, Sunday 12-4 at 608 W. Houstonia Ave the little, funky-brick house 2 streets North of 12 Mile Between Main & Crooks in Royal Oak.<\/span><\/p>\n

For additional information, you can contact Gretchen at (248) 616-1090.<\/span><\/p>\n