If you read us regularly you’ll know all about our company collection posts that share five companies to keep an eye on. But there are too many for our once-a-month posts to keep up with so this week we are bringing you a new company each day. Monday to Friday we’ll be sharing some wonderfully exciting creatives and brands and we hope you love them as much as we do!
We are starting with a company going on its third generation of female tile makers – Kibak Tile. The story of Kibak Tile begins in the 50s with the founder’s mother Gudrun emigrating from Denmark to California with her husband. In 1965 she took up ceramics at the La Jolla Museum of Modern Art, setting herself apart with her architecture-inspired sculptural designs.
After a life surrounded by pottery and tile, raised with a pottery studio in the garden and a gas kiln to experiment with, Gudrun’s daughter Susanne was destined to make tiles of her own. Having acquired a degree in Ceramics from UC Santa Cruz and a relocated to Central Oregon, Susanne’s future as a tile designer was cemented. She began creating murals for bathrooms and kitchens and by 1981 Kibak Tile was fully fledged.
Finally Carli, who grew up around Kibak Tile, began hand-painting tiles in high-school. After graduating from Seattle University and travelling extensively, Carli rejoined Gudrun and Susanne at the family company.
Their refined collection of patterns are all made to order and hand-painted. The ceramic tiles range from simplistic motifs and geometric designs to their more elaborate Cherry Tree mural.
A new post by Hanna Simpson, Diary of a Tile Addict, August 2021.