have you heard of the spanish royal with more names and titles than a downtown library??
you know the one, a descendant of enough royal blood to put her in the guinness book of world records? maria del rosario cayetana alfonsa victoria eugenia francisca fitz-james stuart y de silva, is merely her name, with the current count of her royal titles ranging around 40! she is meant to be descended from the duke of alba and even sir winston churchill.
right here in the tile kingdom, we have a similar situation whereby a particular tile has been finding itself caught in the crosshairs of a battle of nomenclature. along with our spanish friend, the controversy seems to come from the fact that this tile bears a profusion of more names and titles than that of your average field tile. i'll bet we could establish a new world record for it...as the tile with the most names and titles.
to make matters worse, the tiles are a descendant of 13th century ceramic "ancestors" - called inlaid tiles- that gained their misnomer during the victorian era when they were called "encaustics" because of the way they resembled works made from an archaic enameling process. something involving beeswax not clay. holy cow! are you still managing to follow these crazy bloodlines? fast-forward to our tiles at hand, and they are yet a modernized cement version of the 13th century inlaid ceramic tiles that never should have been called encaustics to begin with!
if i've lost you- never fear. i, for one, think today's guest tiles deserve a world record for being the most provocative of tiles in color and pattern. that should be their claim to fame. they are incontrovertibly, favored by those with a bold spirit and a wild streak.
best known as: cement tiles, hand poured tiles, concrete tiles, cuban, nicaraguan, hydraulic, encaustic, moroccan, spanish, belgian, and french tiles. i prefer the name moroccan hand made encaustic cement tiles.
how's that for a 6-word memoir!
this week our pin-tourist pulls from the clé pinboard filled with inspirations of a tile that can go from vibrant and funky, to delicately subtle.
and here's a visit with our good friends at emery et cie. with her incredible eye for color, pattern and art, is it any wonder we have all begun to love moroccan hand made encaustic cement tiles and zelliges because of the passion of belgian architect and design impresaria -agnes emery?
