1. Skip to navigation
  2. Skip to content
  3. Skip to sidebar

Breaking Glass

By Jeremy Bloom on Monday, March 17th, 2008

Image: Breaking Glass

Image courtesy of UKTV Documentary.

Sand… that’s really all glass is. Fancy sand. And yet, our eyes are unmistakably drawn to the magical way glass plays with light and color. Especially when that glass is rough and rustic, with that unmistakable hand-made quality.

Hakatai Enterprises of Ashland, Oregon imports a line of lovely, gem-like 1” by 1” tiles ranging from cloud white to smoky quartz, stopping along the way at ginger tea, burnt amber and tricycle red. Thirty shimmering colors in all, in standard, matte and iridescent sheens. My point is there’s a whole lot of great variation to choose from. Named the Ashland-E series in honor of the company’s Cascadian home town, this collection of tiles comes in single-color sheets, two off-the-rack color blends, or you might even consider creating your own blend with Hakatai’s online customizing tool.

Larger2a

Ashland tricycle red blend, bathroom installation (left). Ashland clear ice, kitchen counter installation (right).

And check this out - there’s also a custom gradient tool that allows you to visualize and special-order long, sweeping swaths of color (like the one pictured at right) to splash across a kitchen wall or bathroom counter. You’ll never want to design in boring old solid colors again.

The glass itself is 30 to 70 percent recycled, so you you can do good while looking good.

And while you’re on the site, check out the amazing gallery of mosaic artists like Mia Tavonetti, who who create shimmering visual landscapes with Hakatai’s product.

Larger3

Cartglass classic porcelain blend, residential kitchen.

Popularity: 47% [?]

Tags:

More from this author

Jeremy Bloom has been writing about truth, beauty and other such nonsense for more than 20 years. He has worked both in building and design, at places such as Barn Raisers, a not-for-profit construction company, and Lunar Logic, a software development firm. Somewhere in his life, he was also a contractor and carpenter. Believe it or not, his lodging history is as varied as his work experience - after living in New York City, Jerusalem, Toronto, Santa Monica and Portland (as in Oregon), he recently moved to the eco-paradise of Powell River, British Columbia, north of Vancouver. He lives by the ocean with his fiance, Lyra, and their cats Navi and Sylvanus.

2 Comments Add your own

by Clara March 17th, 2008

Is it me or does that photo with lightning remind anyone of a certain reise witherspoon movie? can’t remember the name. anyways - cool stuff. seems like a really nice tile system for the bathroom.

by loraleonard March 17th, 2008

“Sweet Home Alabama” Funny - that is exactly what I was thinking.

Share your thoughts...