Motawi Tileworks Announces New Tiffany-Inspired Tiles

Last week Motawi Tileworks announced two new tiles based on the beautiful glass work of Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933).

Ava Maxwell of the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art has been prodding designer Nawal Motawi for several years to create a tile based on Tiffany’s work. “I have long felt that Motawi Tileworks could do justice to Tiffany’s glass work because of the beauty, craft, and design quality of their tile" said Ava. Nawal Motawi responded by saying that, “Ava has been on my case for years, but I needed a long visit to the museum before my artistic muse was able to ‘see’ a tile design in any of the leaded glass pieces. During my visit last year, some ideas finally clicked!”

The Black-Eyed Susan tile comes from a lovely stained glass lamp shade (c. 1904). “The big challenge was translating Tiffany’s more fluid glass shapes into the clear graphic needed for our tile-making process. I have found that it’s easy to lose the magic of a design in the process of tightening it up into a tile design" stated Nawal.

The Magnolia tile is a detail of Tiffany’s famous Magnolia window (1885). “It was tricky to figure out the right scale and level of detail.", said Nawal. "Even choosing the right fragment took a lot of finagling, but I think it came out pretty well.” The Tileworks staff knows that ‘pretty well’ is about as much praise as Nawal ever bestows on her creations; she has a big perfectionist streak.

Motawi Tileworks has been making historically informed ceramic art tile in Ann Arbor, Michigan since 1992. The company started in a small garage and now occupies a 12,000 square foot building.

For more information visit Motawi Tileworks at

www.motawi.com or contact Nawal Motawi directly at 734.213.0017 x 223 or nmotawi@motawi.com