Tortuga Tile Inspirations: Customer Spotlight on Christine

When asked why Christine Bulger is attracted to the indie craft scene, she replies, “It’s fun, clever, and a little twisted.”  Just like the projects that she has put together with her ever increasing Tortuga Tile collection.  She started with Day of the Dead and soon ventured to Tikis, hula girls, mermaids and atomic.  As I got to know Christine over the past year, it became obvious we have been cut from the same funky cloth. I asked her to share her inspiration and some of her process with us and here is her response.

“The Indie Craft Scene is not the same old flamingo wind chimes and beach scene paintings. I’ve been into the vintage-rockabilly-pinup scene for a long time, and that’s a big part of the indie craft scene. Whenever I go to an indie craft fair, I see so many items that make me smile, even laugh. It’s also inspired me to do my own crafting again. I’ve also met a lot of really cool, talented people. They’re people I’d want to be friends with. It reminds of when I went to college in Boston and met all sorts of people with off-the-beaten-path interests, a big change from the totally mainstream upstate New York town where I grew up.”

“My first project was to turn my plain white half-bathroom into a Day of the Dead-rockabilly-hell. I painted the room red, then added a black stripe around the room along which I attached Tortuga death head tiles. I used some other death head wall hangings in the room as well. I also used death head tiles to mosaic a Kleenex box."

I’d wanted to take some sort of arts and crafts class for a while and I think finding Tortuga tiles is what pushed me to take a mosaics class because I wanted to use them in projects.  I took a mosaic class through the Palm Beach County public schools adult education program. It was a good reasonably-priced way to learn the basic techniques for making mosaics. I’d recommend the class, especially since it makes you focus at least a couple of hours each week on making mosaics. It’s so easy to buy all the supplies for a new crafting project, but then never actually get to it.”

“I used a flower tile in a tiki mosaic, and a death head to fancy up a washboard. I also used a tiki mask in a big wall hanging, and a Hula Suzi and a blonde mermaid in two smaller wall hangings. I’m also going to use some atomic tiles to mosaic some table tops.”

Thanks Christine, for sharing your awesome projects.  If you would like to be featured in Tortuga Tidings, post your pictures on the Tortuga Tile Works Facebook wall, or send them to luru@tortugatileworks.com.