| When Pat paints her large ceramic tile paintings, she lays out the tiles on the floor and paints them as a whole. She does not grid the painting out or work on one piece of the tile at a time. |
that Pat has drawn on. He uses a Dremel tool and a lot of control. |
| Wood and tile " DUCK " |
| Pat and Chip Denison create large unique paintings as well as their annual 6" x 8" silk screened tile series. |
the Denisons 23 year old Amazon parrot decides to entertain Pat by bathing in the pan of decals. |
| Pat cuts and applies ceramic decals to some glazed tiles. These tiles will be used on the bodies of the wood cut-outs.The decals add a lot of pattern and detail. The images are ceramic glaze and require another kiln firing. |
| Chip bandsaws plywood into a shape from Pat's design. |
| Pat has her work cut out for her. After Chip cuts the wood shape from Pat's pattern, Pat draws the design for Chip to carve. |
| Chip painting one of the three layers of glaze that will make the tiles look shiny after the tiles are fired in the electric kiln. |
| Tiles stacked in the kiln, waiting for Chip to unload them after their first firing at temperature 1865 F. The tiles still need metallic accents screened on and another firing. |
| Pat painting a floor load of carved, double primed, plywood shapes. She uses latex enamel paint and paints at least two coats. |
| These photos show just a few of the more visual steps in the many times Pat and Chip pick up, alter and juggle the materials used to create a Denison Tlles artwork. They do not price their work by the hour and do not keep track of all the time spent on one individual piece. The Denisons evaluate their yearly income, add in the fun factor and privilege of working at home, together, and decide on a price structure. Their prices are low for all the labor involved, but, then, the Denisons really enjoy their life. |
upholstery nail embellishments that add texture,pattern and interest to the Denison art. |
| The Denisons aren't secretive about their process. They are happy to share sources, and answer questions. They love art and artists. Please be respectful of their time though. They don't teach or give seminars. The Denisons art is about creativity, energy, and labor, not secret recipes. |
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| The artist,Pat Custer Denison, cutting the lacquer film used to adhere to the screen to make a stencil for applying glaze to a ceramic tile(one of the few times she works at a desk). |
| There is a lot of hand painting on the silk screened tiles. Chip does all the hair and fingernails. Pat does all the eyeballs, eye catch lights, and big splooshy areas(Chip hates to paint outside the lines). Chip paints ALL the black edges, free hand. |
| Pat and Chip work, comfortably, sitting on their studio floor. Chip is feeding tiles to Pat so she can squeegee the under glaze through the silk screen stencil. Each color needs at least two applications to be the right intensity when fired. Each color requires a separate screen stencil cut and made to make up the layers. It usually takes 5 or 6 stencils to complete the design (plus one more stencil for the metallic accents that screen on after the first firing,the gold gets fired in a second firing). |
