Call it serendipity

Often, I had walked past a tile showroom on Rhode Island Street in the San Francisco Design Center district. This time, I stopped in my tracks and stepped through the front door to meet Roger Chetrit, a hand-painted-tile artist. The project I was working on required custom tiles, and here I was in a showroom full of custom tiles. It was apparent from that initial meeting that Roger had the skill set and background to accomplish almost any custom tile challenge.

The Vision

While at college, Roger worked in a tile store of a family friend. From his interactions with the customers, he realized there was a demand for unique and custom tile work. Inspired to develop his art skills, he took lessons in the art of classical realism with Charles Becker. He soon began experimenting with glazes, firing techniques, and illustration methods, including hand brushing, stenciling, screen printing, and airbrushing.

Roger immigrated to the San Francisco Bay Area from Strasbourg, France. Often, on his return visits to France, he makes a point to visit the Louvre, and in particular, a painting by Jacques-Louis David, “The Coronation of Napoleon.” The brocades and fabric designs have inspired him to make more intricate designs for his own collection. The size and scale of the painting inspired him to work on large-scale garden murals for walls and fountains.

**Detail from The Coronation of Napoleon**

Tile rug

I was about to offer Roger a big challenge. My client had shown me a picture that inspired her of a tile floor that imitated a rug. I took my design challenge to Roger, and we developed an overall concept. Roger then began the process of creating 12" x 12" samples. The first smooth samples were lacking the textured life of a rug. Roger found a bisque tile that had a coarse canvas texture and adjusted his illustrating technique. The final result, as shown in the image below, was excellent and far exceeded the client’s inspiration picture.

More serendipity: something completely different

I had just spent part of the day in the San Francisco Design Center district with the same client, looking for decorative tiles for the main staircase risers and the kitchen stove backsplash. Nothing appealed, and I wanted to know if we had set the bar too high. My client had left the Design Center, so I decided to take one last look on my own. Browsing through some books on display in one of the showrooms, one book caught my eye, La Sistina Della Maiolica. I had never seen anything like this. An entire 17th-century (1615-1617) Sistine ceiling of handmade tiles.

**Ceiling of La Sistina Della Maiolica**

I brought the book to my client, and she was equally enthralled by it. The next step was to choose some images and show our shortlist to Roger.

Each tile needed to be hand-painted, and each tile needed a patina. The results of Roger's work were outstanding, as seen in the pictures below.

Tile Visions

About Gistjot

Nature - Nurture - Nourish