A wall of Oleson field tile in browns and one green, its pillowed edges catching the light, with a row of handpainted decos set into it

Oleson Series

Handcrafted character,with a softer edge

Molded with distinctive pillowed edges and rounded corners, these tiles feature a natural, undulating surface that feels alive.

Sizes
Sixteen
Edge
Pillowed
Body
Half inch red clay
Made in
Gardena, California

Oleson collection

Six ways to work in Oleson

The Oleson collection bridges the gap between rugged durability and refined artistry.

Built from a robust red body ceramic and finished with iconic ARTO glazes, the liquid color pools beautifully across the face of the tile and eases gently over its corners, celebrating the unpredictable beauty of a truly handmade product.

A floor and wall tile in sixteen sizes, half an inch thick with a pillowed edge. Six squares from 12x12 down to 2x2, seven rectangles, and three hexagons. Every one of them available in both our Premium High Fire and Signature Low Fire glazes.

Made to order. Oleson is not one of the in stock sizes, so it is made in the glaze you choose rather than pulled off the floor. Ask us about lead time before you specify a date.

Oleson on a counter front, a commercial kitchen

Shapes and sizes

Sixteen sizes, one edge

Six squares, seven rectangles and three hexagons. Every drawing is set to the same size and the same line weight, so what a drawing shows you is its proportion. The dimensions are on the row.

Squares Six The six Oleson squares drawn nested inside one another, 12x12 down to 2x2

  • Oleson 12x12

    Nominal12x12 Actual11 13/16 x 11 13/16

  • Oleson 8x8

    Nominal8x8 Actual7 3/4 x 7 3/4

  • Oleson 6x6

    Nominal6x6 Actual5 3/4 x 5 3/4

  • Oleson 4x4

    Nominal4x4 Actual3 11/16 x 3 11/16

  • Oleson 3x3

    Nominal3x3 Actual2 11/16 x 2 11/16

  • Oleson 2x2

    Nominal2x2 Actual1 11/16 x 1 11/16

Rectangles Seven

  • Oleson 6x12

    Nominal6x12 Actual5 3/4 x 11 13/16

  • Oleson 6x9

    Nominal6x9 Actual5 3/4 x 9 1/8

  • Oleson 4x8

    Nominal4x8 Actual3 11/16 x 7 3/4

  • Oleson 3x9

    Nominal3x9 Actual2 11/16 x 9 1/8

  • Oleson 3x6

    Nominal3x6 Actual2 11/16 x 5 3/4

  • Oleson 2x4

    Nominal2x4 Actual1 11/16 x 3 11/16

  • Oleson 2x12

    Nominal2x12 Actual1 11/16 x 11 13/16

Hexagons Three The Oleson hexagons drawn as one large hexagon beside a cluster of smaller ones

  • Oleson 4 inch Hexagon

    Nominal4 inch Actual3 7/8 x 3 7/8

  • Oleson 6 inch Hexagon

    Nominal6 inch Actual6 x 6

  • Oleson 12 inch Hexagon

    Nominal12 inch Actual10 1/2 x 10 1/2

Nominal is the name a tile goes by and actual is the dimension a caliper reads. On a pillowed tile the two are further apart than they look, because the edge eases away before it meets the joint. Every size here is half an inch thick on the same red body, and every one takes both glaze programs.

An Oleson hexagon floor, in a bath

Glazing

Two programs, seventy six colors

Two firing methods, two palettes. All sixteen Oleson sizes are open to both, so the choice is the color and not the range.

  • Signature Low Fire Fifty six colors The broad palette. Whites, greys, browns, the whole spectrum through to the greens.
  • Premium High Fire Twenty colors A shorter, earthier range. Ash, May Gray, Black Diamond, Leather, Pueblo Red, Copper, Elder Green.

Finish Gloss, Satin and Matte across the two programs. Forty seven of the colors are gloss.

Body Oleson is made on the Monrovia red body bisque, the same body as Monrovia, Studio, 3D Ceramic, Scirocco, Peninsula and Handpainted.

The difference The two programs are fired by different methods. Nothing in the range is limited to one of them.

Unglazed Every Oleson size can be ordered unglazed or glazed, so the red body can speak for itself.

Working from an older sample board

  • Ice Storm is now Celeste Blue
  • Aqua is now Sea Foam
  • Turtle is now Tortoise
  • Alabaster is now Linen

No image of a glaze is the glaze. Order a chip before you commit a wall to a color.

Ceramic glaze colors

Seventy six colors, order the chip

Laid out so a family reads as a family. Click any square to order that color as a chip.

Signature Low Fire Fifty six

Premium High Fire Twenty

A screen is not a glaze. These squares are photographs of fired samples and they shift with your monitor, the room and the light. Order the chip, put it on the wall, and look at it at three different hours before you specify it.

Trim and accessories

Forty two pieces for the edges

The trim is where a tile job stops looking like a tile job. All of it in both glaze programs, all of it on the same red body as the field.

  • Surface Bullnose

    Eight pieces

    A finished edge where the tile stops.

    6x6, 4x4 and 3x3, each with a matching corner, plus a 3x6 in long side and short side.

  • Cove Base

    Eight pieces

    The transition from floor to wall.

    6x6 and 3x6, flat top or bullnose top, with inside and outside corners, plus base moulding plain or with a cove.

  • Liners

    Eight pieces

    A thin line of color to break up a field or cap a run.

    Pencil in five eighths and one inch, square, grooved, Pinnacle in one and two inch, the P liner and the staged liner.

  • Mouldings and Rails

    Twelve pieces

    Relief and shadow where a wall changes plane.

    Moulding A and B, five numbered profiles, two chair rails, Waterbury, Cornice and Rutland.

  • Quarter Round and Beak

    Four pieces

    A soft return on an outside edge.

    Quarter round and inside quarter round, the quarter round beak, and the inside beak corner.

  • V Cap

    Two pieces

    A capped edge for a counter or a step.

    The cap and its corner.

The trim is square edged, not pillowed. The pillow is on the field tile and the trim meets it with a straight edge. The same trim serves Oleson, Monrovia and Studio Field, so a piece you find here will turn up on those pages too. We will send nominal sizes with a quote.

Applications

Where Oleson can go

Seven ratings, and Oleson carries all seven. Ask us before you specify a floor or an exterior, because the glaze matters as much as the body.

  • Floors Floors Rated to walk on, glazed or unglazed.
  • Walls Walls Interior and exterior wall work.
  • Indoor Indoor Kitchens, baths, hearths and any interior surface.
  • Outdoor Outdoor Exterior walls, courtyards and covered outdoor rooms.
  • Pedestrian Pedestrian Foot traffic, including commercial floors.
  • Pools Pools Pools, fountains, and any surface that stays submerged.Requires an overglaze
  • Freeze / Thaw Freeze / Thaw Holds up where water freezes in the surface.

The overglaze is for submerged work only. A bath, a shower or a splash zone does not need one; a pool or a fountain does. Ratings describe the tile and not every piece around it, so a liner is not a floor tile and a chair rail is not a stair tread. Send us the drawing and we will tell you what the trim can take.

Custom is the standard

Two pieces or ten thousand

We started as a custom shop and we still run that way. Send a chip. Bring a swatch. Show us what you're building. We match a glaze to a color you already have, cut shapes that do not exist yet, and turn your own artwork into a handpainted design. A sample is fired before any production commitment.

  • Custom Color
  • Custom Shape
  • Historical Match
  • Color Match
  • Two Pieces
  • Two Pallets

The material

Built to outlast the install

The craft is in the maker's hands. The performance is in the fired clay body. ARTO publishes CSI 3-Part specifications and installation guides so architects and designers can specify with confidence.

  • The mix

    Red Body and Blonde Body Ceramic

    Handcrafted in Gardena from high fired terracotta. Most of the line is a red body at half an inch. CLARA and the Tierra Madre decos are a blonde body. Every piece is made by hand, so thickness and size vary across a run.

  • The color

    Ceramic Glaze Palette

    Signature Low Fire, Premium High Fire and Metallic glazes, with seventy seven stocked as samples. Shade variation runs from V2 to V4 depending on the glaze. Four series carry a range of their own.

  • The documentation

    Specs and Downloads

    A CSI 3-Part master specification covers clay tile, 09 30 13 Quarry Tile. Cleaning, efflorescence and sealing guides are in the technical library.

  • The application

    Walls, Floors and Wet Areas

    It varies by series. The Studio field is rated for interior and exterior walls and floors, and for wet and freeze thaw conditions. Scirocco, Peninsula and Silk Road are interior. CLARA is a wall tile.

  • The industry

    Industry Standards

    Member of TCNA, NTCA, and CTDA. Custom products are available with project-specific testing on request.

  • The decision

    Sampling

    Always order a sample before you commit. What you see on a screen is not what your hand will know in the room. Samples ship from our Gardena facility.

Material truth

Rustic Elegance

Rough and refined at the same time. A handcrafted edge where no two pieces are exactly alike. Glaze fired over handmade clay, in a palette that reads differently at every hour of the day.

It is not a marketing phrase. It is a material truth. Far from perfect, and that is the whole point.