February 2021 Clay Squared Newsletter

Shower Niches

One way to add interest to your bathroom is with a shower niche. These inserts in the shower can hold all of your toiletries and look beautiful, too.
In the photos above, you can see how our tiles have been used to add a striking pop of color to white bathroom field tile. Using a contrasting color to the wall tile, the niche will no longer be a disguised feature, but will now become it’s own small work of art. To see more niche pictures, you can visit our website, or our Instagram.  Read the whole Newsletter.

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!

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.

The tile maker’s art

We were featured in the Southwest Journal on MARCH 21, 2020
An ancient craft with a modern touch
by SUSAN SCHAEFER / EDITOR@SWJOURNAL.COM
Have you ever heard cat paws prancing upon your roof? No? Well, back in Victorian Britain, when most roofs were created from that iconic fired red clay, the nightly frolicking of rooftop cats gave rise to the word tile. Seems the ruckus evoked the French word, “tuile,” which itself is originally from the Latin word “tegula,” meaning a roof tile. Read the whole article click here.

March 2020 Clay Squared Newsletter

Josh Talks Tile At Restore Nebraska Conference

At the end of February Josh returned to Omaha, Nebraska to give two presentations to the Restore Nebraska Conference. The first: “Restoring tiles in your turn-of-the-century home”, and the other: “The invention of America’s first tile style: Mid-century Tiles.” The conference has doubled since Josh was there last and has merged with the Nebraska Historical Society. Click here to read the newsletter.

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

January 2020 Clay Squared Newsletter

It was a shock the other day when an Instagram friend and past client messaged Josh to say we were featured in Bon Appetit Magazine for our tile project at Karl’s in Detroit . It is fun to have your work featured in a place you never imagined! Maybe our subliminal message of naming most of colors after food inspired them to give us a shout out.  Read all about it!