Elvio Santini started working for his father at 15, making and laying ceramic
tiles in the family business.
By the time Santini was 30, he was a fully qualified tile setter running
his own business.
Ceramic tiles are like fine pottery, says Santini. "They're meant
to look attractive, as well as being functional. All my clients like the look
of handmade tile because it does both better than anything else you can buy."
While Santini loves his trade, he admits there is one drawback. "The only
problem is that you're vulnerable to what people can and can't afford,
especially if you're like us and deal mainly in decorative and not industrial
tiles."
Since Santini works for individuals, rather than large corporations, he
is more vulnerable to market trends. "We do occasionally do large contracts,
but most of our business is in private homes," he says.
Like his father before him, Santini runs his business as a family affair,
with cousins and relatives apprenticing in the trade.
Santini says the recent demand for tile setters is a result of both an
increased interest in quality finishing and the fact that people now have
more money to spend on luxury items. "With the economy improving, people are
looking around and saying, 'OK, I want this place to look nicer now that
I can afford it.' So poof, out goes the plastic wallpaper and in comes
the new fancy tile -- which is where I come in."
Santini isn't sure how long the demand for his skills will last, but
he doesn't expect to be unemployed anytime soon. "I think the economy
is improving, but also people have other things to spend money on," he says.
"For us, we depend on the people who want top-quality finishings, and I don't
think they'll ever quite disappear. Someone can always afford it."
The demand for top-quality work has been a boon to other tile setters too.
When Dave Campbell started working for a tile setter, he was applying grout
and wringing out sponges. Now he has a thriving business and his business
cards read Dave Campbell -- Tile Guru!
Unlike most tile setters, Campbell didn't take any formal training
or apprenticeship programs to learn his trade. Fresh out of high school, he
began working for a friend of his family while trying to support a growing
family of his own.
"I had a family at a young age and I needed to do something," says Campbell.
"Tile setting appealed to the artist in me. I also saw the money that could
be made and how soon I could get into it."
After learning the ropes for three years, Campbell struck out on his own.
Six years and many bathrooms later, Campbell still loves his job.
"I like the artistic and the visual side of things -- the finicky stuff,"
he says. "I also like being self-employed, setting my own hours. I'm
not stuck doing the same thing in the same place every day."
Renovations account for most of Campbell's work. He says one of his
biggest challenges comes in trying to interpret what his clients want done
in their renovations. He does a lot of work with tub surrounds, fireplaces
and floors.
"People can be pretty finicky," says Campbell. "I had one client who wanted
me to paint him a watercolor picture of his bathroom before I tiled it to
show him what it would look like.
"And I had another one who built a replica of his bathroom out of a shoebox
-- complete with little paper tiles!"
Campbell obviously manages to please his clients: almost all of his business
comes from word-of-mouth recommendations.
"The most important part of tiling is the visual aspect," he says. "If
you've got a knack for that, the rest is mechanics."
While renovations pay the bills, Campbell's true love is tile art
-- which includes tiling everything from tabletops and mirror frames to furniture
and ornaments.
"My goal is to make my living as an artist," Campbell says. "Sometimes
I paint my own tiles and other times I use bits of broken porcelain that I
find on the beach."
Anna Horfferber-Smits is one of those tile setters who does make her living
as an artist. As one of the few women in the field, Horfferber-Smits uses
her knowledge of tile and grout to create interesting and unique pieces for
her clients.
"My favorite piece of all time has got to be the tub surround I created,"
says Horfferber-Smits, who works and lives in Phoenix, Arizona. "It was comprised
of hundreds of tiny blue tiles and they were arranged to look like waves.
The client painted the room in soothing blue tones and the resulting effect
was marvelous."
While most of Horfferber-Smits' work consists of specialty frames
or tabletops, she does occasionally branch out and do larger items. "Once
a client asked me to tile a headboard for a king-size bed," she says.
"The piece turned out well because we tiled the couple's wedding date
in it along with other things that were special to them -- things like china
from a coffee cup [from] where they met, and the knife they used to cut their
wedding cake."
Horfferber-Smits says she tries to be creative in all her work, no matter
what the project. "I still do regular tile work," she says. "I
recently laid a Mexican tile floor and that's a pretty straightforward
job. But I do try to spice it up a bit.
"For instance, I suggested that we lay the tile on an angle to give an
interesting look and we used bright blue spacers to add a hint of color. It's
touches like this that really transform an ordinary floor into a work of art."