Article about tiling business of Klaus in a local newspaper Tile setter Klaus Joehle translates his inspirations into tile mosaics. His works are applied to floors, stairways, furniture, business signs and just about anywhere customers can think of putting them. By Chris Bush, The news Bulletin
Klaus Joehle is anything but your average tile setter.
The tile mosaics he creates on his customers’ floors are truly works of art and to showcase some of these works, he and his wife Roberta opened Bad Boys Mosaics in early May at No. 1 1-1240 Island Highway in Chase River.
His talent is rare. In Western Canada he said there is only one other tile shop – in Calgary, Alta. – that offers mosaics.
Joehle has set tile for more than 20 years, but created mosaics since 1995 when, on a whim, he did his first “rug” in a customer’s home.
“You do an entranceway and you put 30 tiles down and it’s just – tiles. It looks empty, “ he said.
“So I just one day did it. The customer wasn’t home and I just cut up a bunch of tiles. I had some other tiles in my car. I made a “rug” with all the tassels (a Persian rug design) and I just put it in and I left.”
The customer called later, happy almost beyond words.
Translating a scene or an idea into a tile mosaic is a challenge demanding unique skills and talent, which limits the number of people who do it.
“It’s really difficult to do,” he said.
“You have to be very, very fast. If you sit and think about where to put the next piece then it takes so long that the price doesn’t work anymore. And it’s hard to translate things you see into tile. It takes time and there has to be a love for it.”
Mosaics and stone work are among man’s earliest art forms.
Joehle said mosaics are all around us. Rock arrangements are a form of mosaic as are jigsaw puzzles and even the grid layouts of crossword puzzles.
Arranging things is something humans naturally do. He also shows people how to make tile mosaics and cuts, tumbles tile bits people can buy for their mosaic designs.
“I can throw 10 pieces of broken tile on that desk and anybody who comes in, 99 per cent of them will take their fingers and start putting them together into shapes. It’s just the most natural thing,” he said.
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