Ecologically Conscious

Before we begin creating tile we need to get our clay which we locally sourced and either picked up or delivered.

When creating tiles we use a myriad of tools, brushes, stamps, and cookie cutters that are reusable. For more particular things like storage racks and tile boards, we try to either buy them secondhand or make them ourselves. The two machines we use are called extruders which flatten the clay into tile, the main one we have used for 25 years is cranked by hand. If the tile that extrudes out has issues or we notice any problems once they are dry we put them in a bucket to rehydrate and reuse.

Many places bisque the tile (a firing without glaze) and then fire it again with glaze. We let the tiles dry out naturally, glaze, and then do only one firing. Our glazes are all non-toxic and have no VOCs ( Volatile organic compounds).

There is no perfect green material, we look upon a product’s impact through its Life Cycle Assessment, which, according to the Green Building Resource Center, “considers the full range of a product’s environmental impacts, from resource extraction to manufacturing and then through installation and ultimate disposal.” We have our clay made locally as well as much of our materials and serve the Twin Cities metropolitan area around us. Since tile itself is an extremely durable product, outlasting wood, linoleum, and carpet with a life span of over 100 years, the environmental benefits include less resource extraction and overall energy used for manufacturing and installation.

There is no perfect green material, we look upon a product’s impact through its Life Cycle Assessment, which, according to the Green Building Resource Center, “considers the full range of a product’s environmental impacts, from resource extraction to manufacturing and then through installation and ultimate disposal.” We have our clay made locally as well as much of our materials and serve the Twin Cities metropolitan area around us. Since tile itself is an extremely durable product, outlasting wood, linoleum, and carpet with a life span of over 100 years, the environmental benefits include less resource extraction and overall energy used for manufacturing and installation.