Mexican Tile Co.

by Margaret Fleming

Tile for the floors, the counters, the walls; tile for utility, for art, for whimsy, for style. They're all here at the Mexican Tile Company. The place is a miniature museum illustrating different varieties and functions. It begins at the entrance archway, which is outlined in brightly colored ceramic tile. Inside there's a Saltillo floor with a "rug" at an angle, made of inlaid tiles with a border and a "fringe" at each end. It's a work of art that uses one medium to imitate another very effectively.

At the end of the room white ceramics with blue and green accents ornament a beehive fireplace . There's an elegant relief sculpture on the wall made from pieces of quarry tile cut into shapes to form a dolphin. The coffee table has a mosaic on its surface. Screens and counters around the room are filled with mosaics, pictures, colored tile, natural tile, and specials featuring painted coyotes, lizards, fish, and fruit. Inside a tiny alcove outlined by a ceramic arch and fitted with tiled counters, a pot of beans cooks.

But there's more to come. A look inside the bathroom reveals a large round shower stall with a gorgeous band of colored tiles in an abstract pattern sweeping around the white inner surface from top to bottom. In the bedroom tile covers the dresser top, forms a headboard on the wall above the bed, and decorates a Kleenex box on the table.

Outside there's another fireplace, sitting on a raised, tiled hearth. A cactus done in mosaic decorates the front of the fireplace, a lizard crawls along the hearth, and a ceramic sun smiles from above. The yard is full of huge concrete pots and stacks of materials.

We talked briefly to two of the owners, Karen Gosnell and Juan Espinoza. They are from Phoenix, and they started this business in June 1996. Their Mexican partner is Enrique Nuñez. The tiles are acquired from a number of different artisans, both local and regional. The business appears to be very successful; when we visited, the place was full of people looking, ordering, and talking to the salespersons.

The Mexican Tile Company is not hard to find. It's near the Cholla Bay Road, and a number of signs point people in the right direction. Visit it for the tile of your life.

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