Putting It Together : Makers of hand-painted ceramic tiles help homeowners create distinctive, unique looks.

While the rest of the art world is busy painting portraits, watercolor seascapes and velvet Elvises, Maxine Tuchfield and Ellen Harris are sitting in their North Hollywood studio getting fired up over their latest feat of clay.

The duo survey a couple hundred of their creations: hand-painted ceramic tiles that display a delicate floral pattern with cascading green leaves. The design flows from one tile to another to create a large, eye-catching mural that will eventually grace someone’s kitchen.

“There is a certain charm to hand-painted tiles,” Tuchfield said. “They can make a nice room look really spectacular.”

Added Harris: “These days, there is a greater emphasis on tile. People are putting high-quality building materials into their homes; they want the decor to look distinctive, even unique. Tile provides an accent.”

Tuchfield and Harris, who run a company called Limited Editions, are among only a dozen or so San Fernando Valley artisans who professionally design and paint custom tiles--herbs, flowers, animals, Southwestern scenes, intricate patterns that match wallpaper, even life-size mermaids and company logos.

All use centuries-old techniques--still popular in Europe, Mexico and the Middle East--to paint, glaze and kiln-fire their pieces, which wind up adorning kitchens, dens, bars, swimming pools, bathrooms and exterior walls of offices and homes. It’s art that’s moving, even if it can’t be moved.

“Hand-painted tile is an ancient and prized art,” said Daniel Jones, owner of California Tile in Burbank, one of the Valley’s larger outlets of the ceramic art. “It has been around as long as pottery. . . . It adds charm and increases the value of a home. These days, people are using the tiles in new and creative ways--in foyers, pantries, solariums, everywhere.”

Added Denyse Barbas, a design consultant for California Kitchens in Burbank: ‘It’s fun, it’s personal; custom tile work makes you feel comfortable when you walk into a room. It’s a very effective way to make a home look striking--whether a person’s taste is Moorish or artichokes and asparagus.”

Sheri Rich, who runs Sylmar-based Any Rich Design, has produced custom tiles for more than two years, and is working on logos and lettering for several Western Bagel stores. “I figured there are millions of people creating paintings, so I never considered becoming an artist. But when I found out a professional tile painter was looking for someone to help them out for a few months, I jumped at the chance.”

Today, people come to her wanting to duplicate patterns they’ve seen elsewhere. They ask her to create designs incorporating their favorite animals or plants. Others simply want to replace a tile that’s no longer available.

“The great thing about custom tile is that you can put whatever you want on it. It’s a very personal approach to decorating your home,” she said.

Like most artisans, Rich can spend upward of two or three weeks designing a pattern, tracing it onto a set of tiles and coloring all the pieces. “I usually work from a photograph or drawing of what a client wants, and I use stencil books, magazines, whatever I can find to help me create the design.”

Of course, when she’s working on a mural or a pattern that runs from tile to tile, she must take care to coordinate all the tiles in the pattern. More often, a homeowner simply wants individual tiles--depicting various fruit, herbs, animals or flowers--that are randomly inset into plain tiles to provide an accent.

Rich and other artists usually favor a technique called china painting--the same process that is used on plates and decorative ceramics like teacups and porcelain vases. Using brushes and other tools, the artist applies an oil-based paint in any of the hundreds of colors that are available.

When the tile is fired in a kiln at 1,200 to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit, the paint permanently dries. Depending on the intricacy of the design and how much color is involved, two or three firings are often necessary to complete a pattern. Each firing, which requires upward of eight hours for the kiln to heat and cool, adds additional depth to the color and allows the artist to fill in further detail without smearing the paint.

But china painting is not the only method available. Most artists are also adept at painting tiles with ceramic glazes--a finish that adds a glossy, watercolor-like appearance to the surface of the tiles. After the glaze is puddled onto the tile and moved about with brushes, the tile is placed into the kiln. If it’s fired at a higher temperature than the original firing that dried the clay, the tile can take on a slightly three-dimensional texture as indentations are formed.

Regardless of technique, a skilled artist needs 15 minutes to an hour to paint a single tile. “The idea is to create a look that isn’t mass-produced but one that’s also not too rough. You don’t want every tile to look exactly the same, but you don’t want them to look too different,” said Paula Luni, who along with Marla Thomas runs Uniq Hand Painted Tiles in the Sand Canyon area of Santa Clarita. The two paint a range of subjects, including floral designs, country scenes and cartoon-like figures.

“With two of us doing the work, we have to be tuned into one another. If you’re not careful, a pattern or design can change while you’re painting a couple of hundred tiles,” Thomas added.

Skill isn’t the only factor, however. A good deal of perseverance is necessary to complete many projects.

Large kitchens or bathrooms can involve 1,000 or more pieces and take as long as a month to complete. “There are times when it can be monotonous--especially if you are painting one tile after another with the same design--but there are times when it’s really exciting,” Rich said. “It’s always wonderful to see a piece of art take shape.”

Such labor-intensive work doesn’t come cheap. Custom-painted tiles can cost from $10 to $25 each, plus the design cost, which can be from $100 to $300. A mural can run upward of $400.

Artists who specialize in hand-painted tiles quickly learn to cater to the idiosyncrasies of their clients. Over the dozen years that Tuchfield and Harris have been in business, they’ve received their fair share of unusual requests.

A few years ago, for example, a family by the name of Fox requested that their kitchen tile bear their namesake. And Sheri Rich had one man request that his wife’s face be included in a large mural of a mermaid that was to be installed at the bottom of their swimming pool.

Despite careful planning and meticulous attention to detail, some designs don’t come out as planned, however. “There have been times,” Tuchfield said, “when you paint on a color and it simply disappears. Sometimes a combination of colors doesn’t come out the way you’ve planned. A color like yellow may eat up another color it is with. . . . It is a bit of an inexact science, but that’s what makes it so interesting.”