Fireclay Tile Makes Handmade Tiles and Glazed Bricks in California

Handmade tiles and thin glazed bricks are Fireclay Tile’s stock-in-trade: Since 1986 the company has shaped its wares to order in Aromas, in California’s agricultural heartland. (The brand’s showroom is in nearby San Francisco.) Clay is sourced from the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas and granite dust from local quarries. The latter is combined with post-consumer glass and porcelain to create the company’s recycled clay–body products, which serve as a way to reuse water as well as to reincorporate material from tile that doesn’t pass quality control. Want to view some examples in situ? Check out the mid-century Palm Springs home of Danielle Nagel, founder of the apparel company Dazey LA. The fashion designer deployed 3-by-12-inch tiles glazed in Koi and Milky Way to form a fabulously retro orange-and-white checkered floor.