Tile Road Tripping

Over the holidays, Layl, Josh, and our daughter Elliot took a road trip. We drove from Minneapolis to Vancouver, BC, to see our oldest daughter. Along the way we stopped at several pottery, tile, and art places. One highlight was stopping at Medalta Pottery, where Elliot was an artist in residence in 2019. It was an amazing place with original beehive kilns — now used as a museum.
Traveling through rural Canada by car was a wonderful experience. We were able to pack our car with all of our necessities, so we had little contact with others. (OK, we did stop for Tim Horton donuts three times — it was a must!) When the border guard asked where we were going — knowing where we came from — he was shocked at our idea to drive 2000 miles across the Canadian tundra. The mountains, prairies, and badlands were all amazing to take in. There was an incredible amount of wildlife to enjoy: eagles, coyotes, hawks, big horn sheep, antelope, and deer. It always kept our interest.
This trip was a great refresher of ideas, and fuel for the soul.

December 2020 Clay Squared Newsletter

Park Laurel Apartments Project

For the past year Josh has been busy with the historic restoration of the Park Laurel Apartments in the Loring park neighborhood of Minneapolis. The project has 40 fireplaces and hearths as well as three geometric, one mosaic and encaustic tiled floors that need to be restored in four apartment buildings. The buildings were built in 1893 and have been named a historic site by the Minnesota Historical Society. Each fireplace is unique from one another and has different restoration needs. Read more about it!

Josh’s Hot Cocoa

As the Minnesota weather starts to turn chilly, the Clay Squared employees start looking forward to the infamous hot cocoa made by Josh. Here is our recipe for the best homemade hot cocoa to warm your winter nights.

Ingredients
1 cup of cocoa powder
2 cups of powdered sugar
2 cups of granulated sugar
2 cups of powdered milk
1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
*Optional 2 Tbls of corn starch for thicker cocoa

Steps

Mix dry ingredients until evenly blended.
Pour one cup of whole milk into a heavy saucepan, and add 2 tsp of hot cocoa mixture.
Whisk mixture until hot and slightly thickened. If using cornstarch, cook on lowest heat as it starts to thicken.
Turn off the burner and pour hot cocoa into a cup – Be careful; it can burn if it is left on the stove too long.
Add marshmallows or whipped cream and enjoy!

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August 2020 Clay Squared Newsletter

A New Addition

Recently, we have a new addition to the Clay Squared Crew. Maddy has taken on the shipping of our handmade tiles, sample packs, catalogs and Layl’s Silly Millies. She makes sure our sample tiles get shipped promptly with all of our literature and planning guides. Maddy’s an illustrator and is pursuing a BA in studio arts, and she also spends the majority of her spare time making costumes for Cosplay. Recently she’s been working on her core strength by lifting heavy boxes of tiles all day (bending her knees of course).

July 2020 Clay Squared Newsletter

Resilience during this surreal moment is a priority for us at Clay Squared. Stresses like the pandemic, social unrest, and uncertainty in daily life have affected all of us. On top of these stresses, we must figure out how to adjust our daily lives. Layl has had to basically start a new way of doing business after all her art festivals were canceled this year. All the classes she used to teach in her studio are no longer possible, although she has taken up the challenge to learn how to teach over Zoom. She sends packets of clay and tools to students all over the country. She also has been doing a semi-regular “Layl Cam” on Facebook Live and YouTube of her making her polymer canes and sculptures. Both have done well and are growing.

Josh and the staff have continued to get projects to keep them busy making tiles. We feel incredibly lucky every day that we get sample requests and orders from homeowners for kitchens, bathrooms, and fireplace projects.
Keeping ourselves busy and focused has been key for us to stay mentally healthy. We also exercise daily to get a little break from all the challenges and to keep our minds fresh. We hope you are finding small things that make you happy and enjoy life in these challenging times too. Thank you for all your support. Click here to read the entire newsletter.

June 2020 Clay Squared Newsletter

The Making of Hexagon Tile from Clay to Installation.

If you are stuck at home and have some time, check out our planning videos.

May 2020 Layl Newsletter

I hope you are all faring well in these unusual times. Here are some tidbits of distraction to get you through. Click here to read the newsletter.

April 2020 Clay Squared Newsletter

A lot has changed in a month has changed in a month. Click here to read more.

February 2020 Clay Squared Newsletter

One of our more recent and exciting projects is a 125 square foot floor made out of 6 inch and 2 inch hexagons in Coco Moon. The customers for this floor got their inspiration from another floor we made a couple years ago, the massive star and hex project which all together came out to 300 square feet. Click here to read the newsletter

Art A Whirl

The Flux Arts Building will host its first ever Art A Whirl. We will have 12 artists showcasing their work.

Starts on Friday May 17th 5 – 9pm

Saturday 12 – 8pm

Sunday 12 – 5pm

Small but Mighty

Our new gallery space the HUB in the Flux Arts Building is featuring the Small but Mighty Show for NCECA conference.

Dates: March 4th -30th
Reception: March 29th, 5pm-9pm

Artists: Shane Harris, CJ Jilek,
Linda Lopez, Matt Mitros,Nathan Prouty Shoki Satake, Max Seinfeild

Highlights a conceptually diverse sampling of contemporary ceramic sculptors working in small-scale ceramics to create a big impact.
Inspired by the Dr. Seuss quote, fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope.
In conjunction with nceca.

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