Weeks Hardware
created by sandra groeneveld
Object: Weeks Hardware
Materials: Matte Glazed Porcelain Tile
Dimensions: 45" x 24.5"
Method: On Fiberglass Mesh for reassembly on-site
A historic two-story brick 1913 building in Brooksville, Florida was being renovated. Owned by the same family for generations, its current descendant/owner, my client, wanted to have a logo at the entry to honor the building's past as "Weeks Hardware".
Classic hexagon shaped glazed porcelain tiles were being used in other parts of the building reno, and was the perfect material for the field tile around the logo at the front door. The Roca CC Mosaics line had 1"x1" black and white tiles to match, which made for a seamless finished mosaic to help with the facelift.
It was such a pleasure to be a small part of the effort in the preservation of this piece of history.
Close-ups & Process
01 Finished installed mosaic at the entry.
02 Historic Weeks Hardware building, Brooksville, Florida.
03 The entry before the renovation.
04 My client designed the logo at the top. I refined some aspects to make sure it would read well in mosaic tile and also offered up various ways it could be encorporated into the field tile.
05 Design options were explored in photoshop, but once printed on paper, some old school methods come in to play to refine my final "cartoon".
06 Start of the tile cutting for the lettering.
07 The main part of the logo was worked out on tile tape. This allowed me to edit freely before committing with thinset. This section had to be perfect.
08 The layout is covered with plastic and then fiberglass mesh, ready for the application of tiles.
09 Special attention was made to the border. Different sizes and patterns are used to make sure there is a clear distinction between the border & the shadow as well as ensuring an interesting mix of "weight".
10 Everything was hand cut with nippers except for some work on the "EST 1911". The wet saw was handy for cutting clean slices as well grinding them in to matching widths.
11 The 1"x1" tiles sliced up for the small lettering.
12 Mortared in place on the mesh.
13 Mosaic completed.
14 Cut up into manageble sections for install.
15 Wrapped up, ready to hand deliver.
16 A paper drawing was provided so the precise location could be marked out by the tile installer.