To see more of Ramona Fusco ’ s handcrafted and hand-painted tile works , visit her website at ramonafusco . com
She wound up in Milpitas , California at the old Handcraft Tile Factory . As she made her way round back to dig through the “ bone yard ” pile , the owner at the time , Clay Scott , came to see if she needed help . When he discovered she was an art student he started talking about how they made art tiles there at the factory .
“ I was so excited about the factory , that the owner gave me a tour . As we talked , he realized that my emphasis in school was ceramics . Before I left , he handed me a bunch of tiles and said , ‘ If you can paint these , you have a job ’. When I returned them , he handed me some molds and asked me to carve them . That was dicey because I had to carve everything in a negative . I eventually came up with a way to do positives , which they cast in plaster . I ended up making and retooling about 95 % of their molds .” She came in search of tile and left with a new career .
That one event opened a door for Ramona that turned into a twenty-year artistic passion . This endeavor has landed many of her handcrafted tile designs in magazines such as Sunset , American Bungalow , and Architectural Digest . Among her list of notable and celebrity clients include : The Ravenswood owner ’ s private wine cellar tiled logo , the master mold for Frys Electronics owner John Fry ’ s kitchen tiles , and corbels for Diane Keaton ’ s living room . One of her larger undertakings was a giant Assyrian king on the bottom of a swimming pool for one of the owners of the Raiders football team .
While she loves her work , it can get a bit crazy at times . It ’ s not always easy to meet the client ’ s expectations such as painting blue strawberries when your artistic nature screams for you to paint them red . Or scale a tall building to match a tile for the Old Navy store in San Francisco .
“ I went out to San Francisco and had to climb out on the scaffolding on the second story to see the original tiles . I am terrified of heights and it was all I could do to walk out there
nonchalantly and take my measurements and photos .” Ramona prefers to spend her time working in her art studio attached to her home — on the ground level .
Now after twenty years , the house remodel is complete , but Ramona just can ’ t seem to quiet those ideas still running around in her head . She once again pulled back the curtains and sunshine filled the entire house across her beautiful counters and tile floors complete with her own hand painted designs . As she pondered the view out to the backyard she knew where her next project would take her . “ I decided to take my gardening knowledge and skills and try to ‘ paint ’ a landscape on our acre using foliage and flowers as my medium .”
Her hand painted tile career is going stronger than ever thanks to the remodel job she took on over twenty years ago . Who knows where it will lead over the next years as she visits local garden stores and spends her spare time remodeling and “ painting ” her acre of land .
Laura
Wrede is a Gilroy freelance writer , artist , and photographer . Her award winning art and photography are shown at various online venues , galleries , and exhibits and held in private collections throughout the USA , Canada , and the UK . Her new book , My Ocean , was recently released .
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