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© Corey Miller Photo
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© Corey Miller Photo
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© Corey Miller Photo
Tiles Projects owner Cristiane Cockrell
At that party was Odis Cockrell, a Burgess native. Barely a month after meeting, the two began discussing marriage. In 2015, they were married, first in Virginia and then in Brazil. And on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 2017, after closing her architectural office of 25 years, the couple moved to Burgess permanently. “Because that day is good luck,” Cockrell says with a smile. “He is the country boy and I am the city girl.”
Settling into a new country and marriage had its challenges, especially given her extremely limited English at the time and his inability to speak Portuguese at all. Google Translate helped them communicate and may have even softened the adjustment. “You can’t fight on Google Translate!” Cockrell laughs.
Although Cockrell thought she was ready to retire, she soon found herself feeling bored, unproductive and looking for an outlet for her talent. As she acclimated to the Northern Neck, she was struck by the absence of tile as a decorative element. “In Brazil, tile is used everywhere,” she explains. “On all the walls of bathrooms, kitchens, laundry rooms, even on the facades of buildings. I thought to myself, I can do tiles.”
When her husband-to-be took her to a jewelry store to choose her engagement and wedding rings, Cockrell spent barely 15 minutes deciding on small, simple rings. But the first time he took her to Lowe’s, he could barely get her out of the store after three hours of marveling at the array of products. “In Brazil, you have a separate store for each thing, one for wallpaper, one for tile, one for floor coverings,” she says. “Here it’s all in one place, but their tiles were boring.”
That’s all it took to send Cockrell into full-on education and research mode for the next two years as she began investigating tile manufacturing and techniques. “I wanted to find out how to have high quality but produce a large number of tiles,” she recalls. “I spent one year learning and testing to ensure the quality of large runs of tile, not limited runs. Then, I started to draw designs.”
The result was something between art and architecture, with an emphasis on designs highlighting geometric shapes and architectural forms that reflected the balance between space, color, line, planes, volume and light. All align on the wall to produce a continuous effect, much like wallpaper. To make her products fully customized, she offers five different sizes of tile. Clients even have the option of choosing to change the color of her designs or bring in their own designs for her to recreate on tile. That led to a decision to collaborate with artists she knew or met or who reached out to her, including tropical painter Gloria Clifford, who created a collection using the sun-drenched bright colors she’s known for.
These tile collections and dozens of others are available at Tiles Projects, Cockrell’s welcoming and colorful shop on Church Street in Kilmarnock. Walking into the shop is like opening a door to the possibilities of tile. For a customer who needed replacement tiles for her 1940s-era bathroom, Cockrell was able to replicate exactly the distinctive shade of green needed. Another client brought in a painting she loved, and Cockrell translated the image to a multi-tile panel backsplash that resembles nothing so much as a striking mural. An abstract painter’s expressionistic work became the starting point for a stunning fireplace surround done in tile.
Browsing among the myriad designs at Tiles Projects confirms that no matter your interest or passion, Tiles Projects offers tiles to reflect it. A three-tile panel of the Norris Bridge? Check. A 15-tile map of the Northern Neck? You bet. Ask Cockrell what can be depicted on a tile, and she’ll tell you absolutely anything qualifies, then back it up by pointing out an array of tiles featuring everything from an octopus, a cheeseburger and a bicycle to Elvis Presley, a rose and a craft beer.
Personality and exclusivity are the hallmarks behind Cockrell’s work. “I decided to create Tiles Projects as an alternative to the industrial tiles widely available, with the possibility of customizing the tiles either by design or color,” she says. “I want each client’s space to feel unique and look the way they dreamed it would.”
Tiles Projects I 26 West Church Street, Kilmarnock 22482 I 804-724-3252 I tilesprojects.com
