Cottage Video

Barb and her daughter Teresa had a great time coming up with this video about Barb’s Cottage and what goes on there – a riff on silent movies!

Barb’s Cottage in San Marcos, Texas

When Barb moved to San Marcos in 1990, the “cottage” was a dilapidated garage in back of her 1928 bungalow – with no front wall. She had it jacked up and a new front put on, and then she painted it to match the house. The cottage is now the ceramic studio where all of the Barb’s Cottage products are created.

The Molding Table

The molding table is where the porcelain clay is put into silicone molds and transformed into highly detailed, 3-dimensional tiles. These “cottage tiles” are used for most of the art produced at the cottage. The cow skull in this unique wall art is an example. Many of the tiles are also available for other mosaic artists at Barb’s Cottage on Etsy.

The Slab Roller

Our newest toy, the slab-roller, makes cutting clay with cookie cutters & stencils a breeze. Instead of the time & trouble it takes to roll the clay by hand with a rolling pen, we now crank it through the slab roller in a fraction of the time. All six of our Rancho Wine Charms are now cut from clay that has gone through the slab-roller and then textured – three of the charms are cut with cookie cutters & three with stencils.

The Kiln

After the tiles harden a few days – whether they are made in molds or cut from clay – they are painted with under-glaze and fired in the kiln to bisque stage. Each tile is then stained, glazed, and fired again to over 2200 degrees.

The most important equipment in the Cottage, the kiln is our workhorse. We often fire it up twice a week – once for a bisque fire and once for a glaze fire.