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About Nicola Godfrey Tile


from left: Nicola Godfrey, Lindy Wachacha

Earth + Fire + Inspiration = Eternal Beauty, Enduring Functionality

Nicola Godfrey designs and fabricates artistic ceramic tile for installation and display in
fine homes, gardens, restaurants, spas and any project requiring specialty tile.

This kind of tile is often called architectural or relief tile because the sculpted images
are raised off the face of a flat tile. Nicola makes her tile through a series of steps involving
sculpting and mold-making.

First, a design is conceived through a theme--often a particular period in art history
or an idea taken from nature. Every tile has an individual story behind its design (please
see the “Tile Lines” section). The concept is drawn on paper and refined until it can be
made into a template. The template is then laid over leather-hard clay. After the image is
hand-sculpted in clay, a mold is made. This mold is tooled and successive molds are
made until the piece meets the artist’s satisfaction. A master is poured in rubber and
successive molds are poured for hand or machine pressing.

Nicola has spent several years finding just the right clay bodies and the most
unique glazes to match. Because the tiles are sculpted and the images are raised,
some of the glazes “break” over the edges into multi-colored patterns during the firing
process. No two are ever alike.

For special projects, custom colors and designs can be made to order, and for the less
adventurous, all tile can be ordered in standard colors. Please call for samples.

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About Nicola

Inspired by world cultures and trained at internationally-renowned institutions,
Nicola Godfrey creates relief tile designs that encompass the beauty of the earth,
the joy and artistry of its cultures, and the ancient tradition of tile as functional art.

An artist at heart and by trade, Nicola has studied figurative sculpture at the
New York Academy of Art, the National Academy of Design, and Silvermine School
of Art in Connecticut. She also had the privilege of studying under sculptor Martine Vaugel
in the Loire Valley, France.

Prior to her focus on fine art, Nicola was a noted garden designer. She received
her undergraduate degree in Landscape Architecture /Environmental Design
from the School of Design at North Carolina State University. She also studied
architectural and industrial design at The University of Copenhagen in Denmark.
After graduating, she went on to design private gardens and give plant and
design lectures for 15 years.

Nicola combines her training in art and her experience designing in the natural
and built environments into creating tile as fine art. She makes these tiles to add
luxury, beauty and value to your home and workplace, inside and out.

Nicola is presently the Artist in Residence at
Dan Finch Pottery, Bailey, North Carolina

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