Feature Tile: Handmade & Hand-Painted Ceramic Tile

Janet is now retired so this site is for historical reference only.

Janet's work has transformed ordinary kitchens and baths into something special with custom tile!

Janet Starr created hand-crafted ceramic tiles 1987 to 2024. She began her art career as a painter and received a BA in Fine Art from UC Santa Cruz. Her traditional art background has influenced her tile designs and contributed to the fine quality of the work. Currently, Janet’s tiles are installed in hundreds of homes locally and throughout the country. All of the work was custom made to order.

Her most recent designs are based on the Arts & Crafts Tradition and the Art Nouveau Period. The fireplaces created in this new style are among her most popular installations. Each tile is handmade from stoneware clay, carved into a plaster master mold, and hand-pressed to create an image that has a raised outline. The tiles are slowly dried and bisque fired at 2048 °F. Janet developed custom stoneware glazes which she hand-painted between the pressed outlines. The glaze colors are soft, rich, and are not found anywhere else. Each tile is glaze fired at 2134 °F. The finished products are similar to tiles found in many historic homes.

Other styles of work include bas-relief animals and sea life in lowfire clay with high gloss glazes, raised relief border tiles in terra-cotta clay with matt glazes, and shaped ceramic tile murals in stoneware or clay.