Commentary on Finished Tiles

This is a commentary on the twenty tiles I made:

1. For the etchings, in general I feel they went well, but it is hard to get a clean line using asphaltum.  PnP paper seems to be the easiest way to get such crispness, but since I prefer working traditionally as possible, I am reluctant to throw in the towel to a printer.  But I cannot help but wonder if the graininess of the asphaltum etching is why the old etchers back in the day (Albrecht Duhrer comes to mind) using cross-hatching to make their images.
2. Chasing and repousse is a fun technique, and one I aim to explore more deeply.
3. In general, the inlays were tough.  Solder inlay requires more cleanup than I like, lamination inlay distorts an image (this can be minimized depending on how you do it - note, minimized), and marriage of metal (aka puzzle inlay) is a pain to get a good fit with no gaps.  I imagine solder inlay will be useful in the future, and as much a pain as matrriage of metal is, I am sure I will continue using them.  Marriage of metal is a challenge to be overcome.
4. Foldforming had a better result than I expected.  But I would not use it extensively.  I would rather etch or make a ring.

For my own tiles, if I were to do anything differently, I would have aged the shiny ones so that they better matched each other.  My idea was that these tiles would have decorated a section of wall in some ancient Persian palace; ultimately, the look of my tiles was divided between past and present.  This did not occur to me until the end.

They will age naturally; this is good, because I am frankly concerned about dismounting them.  They are fixed with Liquid Nails - I really do not want to tear apart the tile that they sit on.  And for that matter, I like the idea of them aging naturally.  It lends a certain sense of authenticity to them.

The one tile that received the harshest criticism - and I was on the fence about including it for this very reason - was the one tile which I did not fabricate in the traditional sense.  It was a piece of copper, which through combination of heating, liver of sulfur aging solution, and an interesting swirly pattern made by a power sander, ended up with a very unique look.  It was iridescent blue and purple and the sanding texture gave it an almost glassy feel to it; the copper was still visible beneath the patina, making it very three-dimensional.  It remined me of Babylonian tile.

To some it was "just a piece of copper".  But I thought it was special enough to include.

Ultimately the whole project was a learning experience for me; I enjoyed it, and it taught me a lot about how I would go about the process if I were to do it again.  There are many things I would do differently, now that I actually have some experience with the project.  But for this project, it did not need to be perfect, and I was not aiming for perfection.  The best that I could do, but not perfection.  That would be impossible, having no knowledge of the techniques that I was doing.  That said I am pleased with the results, and I see no need to revisit my tiles.

For reference again:

It could be brighter an image (on the right side), but such is life.