karen jennings studio   >>architectural ceramics

         Karen Jennings three-dimensional, handsculpted ceramic tile portraits are awesome. She has designed and grouted them into bathrooms, installed them on the bottoms of swimming pools, and hung them on interior walls. The huge tropical fish at Haliimaile General Store, for example, are hers. She works her design onto a huge sheet (usually 4' x 8') of rolled clay, building and sculpting the tile pieces with her fingers ("the best tools you can get").
    The soft mat finish of this piece was created by reversing the usual 2-fire American system (a soft, or bisque, firing first to set the clay, then a hot, stoneware firing for the glaze); instead, Karen will often use the English system for firing bone china - a high stoneware firing first for strength, then a low temperature firing for her unusual glazes.

The concept is totally original!