Sausalito, California, tile company Clé has added a notable new name to its collection of artist-designed tiles: the Glasgow design studio Timorous Beasties, best known for its gently subversive wallpaper and textiles. Clé founder Deborah Osburn discovered the work of Paul Simmons and Alistair McAuley, creators of Timorous Beasties, several years ago and was “captivated by these masters of the decorative motif and their irreverently elegant revisions of classic Victorian designs."
Osborn invited the studio to collaborate, and the result is the Rorschach Tile Collection, which integrates classic damask motifs with Rorschach test imagery (think ink blots). Psychedelics for the 21st century? According to Simmons, "These tile patterns are a reversal of the expected: Blotches, splats, and drips are normally regarded as disordered accidents. By recontextualizing the damask and using it as a vehicle to carry Rorschach-esque symmetrical imagery, we've created beauty out of something conventionally repellent. In fact, by interrogating assumptions about pattern this way, we discover a new aesthetic." What do you think?
Above: The Sphere Stripe pattern installed in a bathroom.
Above: The Timorous Beasties' Rorschach Tile Collection is comprised of five designs, each hand lithographed on 12-inch-by-12-inch square limestone or Thassos marble tiles. All patterns are available in Thassos marble for $75 per square foot and in limestone for $60 per square foot.
Above: Do you see dragon flies? Vertical Stripe tiles in marble.
Above: From a kindred Clé collection called Darwin, Timorous Beasties' Wild Moth Circle in marble.
Above:Grand Blotch Damask in marble. The patterns have been described as "subversive floral abstractions." To view the full line, visit Clé.
See the Timorous Beasties' Rorschach collection of wall coverings and fabrics in similar patterns.
For more tile inspiration from Clé and the Timorous Beasties, take a look at:
- Dip-Dyed Walls: Ombre Tiles from Clé
- Can We Now Call Tiles Sexy?
- Shakespearian Inspired Tiles with a Touch of Goth
- Grand Thistle Wallpaper from Timorous Beasties
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