Book Cover Coasters

Strain. The distortion set up in a material by the action of an external force.

Strength. The ability to resist physical forces imposed during handling or use.

Stress. Internal forces set up in a material by the action of an external force. (Materials Handbook: An Encyclopedia for Purchasing Agents, Engineers, Executives, and Foremen, George S. Brady, McGraw-Hill, 1944)
This old leather bound book serves as an antidote to the stresses of virtuality. I couldn't resist making some tiles 4.25" tiles of the embossed images of tools on the cover: the microscope, sickle, cog, and telescope. They might make a good Father's Day gift: coasters or a wall trio for the right nook. I will try to put them up in our online boutique this weekend.

Kazusuma Ogawa florals on tile

blown glass trinkets

A young fellow from Owego, NY, Eric Johnson, makes these blown glass ornaments. As pendants, they can be worn as jewelry or hung from your rear view mirror. We have two pretty pipes, also, one pictured above.

Give and Forgive: Father's Day gift

June 21st is Father's Day. Even if you loathe the commercialization of holidays, even if Father's Day was a commercial idea at its conception, you can still seize the day as an excuse to give Dad something that will tickle his heart*. For example, you can order this personalized image on a 4" ceramic coaster or 6" ceramic wall decor tile (or, on an easel, desk tile) from our web store. John Tenniel's frog footman and fish footman from his timeless series of illustrations for Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.
* One wouldn't think of saying his 'fat, black heart' " after Sylvia, said The Imp of the Perverse (Poe). Surely the verse below more appropriately leavens the dark oedipal residues that we want to leave out of a Father's Day gift. And perhaps Magpie will come up with a Father William tile, too.

Alice in Wonderland and, Through the looking-glass By Lewis Carroll, John Tenniel, Brigitte Bryan, William Makepeace Thackeray: ""

Film Studies on tile: Fritz Lang's Metropolis

Isn't she lovely, film historians? One 8" x 10" glossy ceramic tile of this vintage futurist image inspired by Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Thirty pfennigs translates into $25.00 at Magpie. The tile is lavishly backed with cork and has a tab hanger. One available, more possible. And wait until you see our Othello. We dig deep to find you rare public domain images and spare no pains to make them into beautiful colorfast art tiles.

Gifts for May birthdays and Mother's Day

We're all about Images on Demand in lasting form. But, at the same time, Wordsworth once wrote of the artist creating the taste by which he or she is to be enjoyed, and we have always done a large bit of that too. Magpie's own extreme eclecticism of good taste is evident if you spend just three minutes browsing our art tiles. If I were a thief with an ideal(ized) mother, I would be stealing the following from our shop to send to her: a little glass bud vase adorned with a miniature wood bird house and colorful curly wire that she can stick on the bathroom mirror holding the sprig of her choice (12.00); a 4" ceramic tile coaster blazoned with lilacs photographed by Chris Galin (8.00); and our Heart Nouveau (pictured below) 2" ceramic magnet (4.00) or coaster (6.00). These would all fit in a lacquered wood treasure box with a 4" tile inlaid in the lid, perhaps a personalized tile (30.00 at Magpie gallery shop).

Magpie mother's day

This photograph of a magpie feeding a baby almost as big as itself is an apt reminder of why mothers deserve a day of honor and presents.