MONTERREY SELECTION COLLECTION

Crackle is a third of what is here

Crackled glazes are the second largest finish group after plain glossy, which is a far higher share than any general ceramic range carries.

A crackle is a glaze fired so its surface develops a network of fine hairline cracks, and it is the single most reliable way to make a colored tile read as handmade. In a selection assembled around character rather than around a factory line, it does a great deal of the work.

The colors go where a floor range will not

White leads, then blue, green, black and purple, with beiges and yellows behind them.

Purple at fifth place happens almost nowhere else in this catalog. It is possible because every piece here is small and wall-oriented, and a wall is where a color carries no consequence for anything else in the room.

Every format is small

4x8, 3x6 and 6x6 lead the sizes, then a 2 3/4x9 3/4 brick, 4x4, 2x6, a 2 1/8x7 1/2 and a 3 5/8x8.

Nothing in that list is a floor size, and nothing is large. A selection built for walls and panels runs small because the pieces are meant to be looked at from a few feet rather than walked across, and because a small format carries a strong glaze better than a large one.

Accent tiles and waterjet pieces

Behind the field tile sit accent tiles, mosaic sheets and a pair of waterjet decos.

Those are the pieces that make a selection a selection rather than a list. An accent tile is meant to be used sparingly against something plainer, and a waterjet deco is a cut stone figure. Neither is a product anybody covers a wall in; both exist to be placed.

Stone and ceramic in one collection

Marble and a second stone appear here alongside the glazed ceramic, in series named Bardiglio, Obsidian, Azul, Verdant and Esmeralda.

Mixing the two in one collection is deliberate, and it carries one consequence worth knowing early. A glazed ceramic is pressed and fired to a set depth; a stone piece is cut to whatever the material and the saw allow. The depths on this page run 3/8, 1/2, 5/8 and 3/4 of an inch, so two pieces chosen from the same collection are not automatically the same thickness. Marble tile covers the stone side of that.

How a selection is meant to be used

Not by covering a room in it. A selection gives a small number of related pieces that can be combined: a field, an accent, a border and a panel.

The usual pattern is one plain material doing the area and one or two pieces from a set like this doing the moment: the wall behind a range, a panel over a basin, a band at eye level. Backsplash tile holds the plain materials.

Where it goes

A kitchen backsplash, a bathroom wall, a powder room, a panel behind a basin and a band inside a plain field.

Ceramic tile covers the material most of this is made from and patterned backsplash tile the other decorative route.