Glass Tile
If you haven’t seen an installation with quality glass tile, you may wonder what the fuss is about. Believe me, when I say it is incredible!. I used glass in a project just recently completed this past summer and I still am amazed every time I visit the property. More than that, the client is infinitely happy with the project and makes a point to tell me so on each visit.
For me it is the way the glass plays with the light. Good glass work does this. WE know this instinctively if we have ever seen light through a crystal chandelier or stemware. The light dances around the room. It captures, holds and projects the light around the space in infinitely different ways. Since an outside application includes a moving light source, the sun, the light is constantly changing. In fact it is not an exaggeration to say the effect is never the same.
Solstice Glass Tile
The glass I used was manufactured by Light Streams Glass and is sold exclusively through Cactus Stone and Tile as their Solstice Series of tile. I was proud my project was featured in one of their advertisements. Working with Eric and the his team at Cactus was a pleasure. One that I hope to repeat soon.
This solstice tile comes in 1″ squares mounted in a staggered bond pattern. Together with the irregular shape of the individual pieces made the glass distinctly “non-modern” in appearance, which fit our project design criteria. A random pattern of transparent and iridescent pieces with in the mosaic is what gives the glass such a phenomenal look.
But be warned. Not all glass looks this good. In some cases the manufacturing process uses inferior materials, resulting in a rather lack luster appearance. Other glass can look good, but can be manufactured in ways that cause problems down the road. Simply put, remember the adage that says, “you get what you pay for”? And know this definitely applies to glass tile!
