Making the tiles "the slow way" was not as time-consuming as I expected.  In many ways I enjoyed the process more, was happier with the final product, and didn't have the difficulty of squaring the tile up and making all the sides even that I had with the other approach.  Plus, the separate pieces make fitting the patterns on the slab easier than with one big pattern.  Looks like the way to go.​

Winter, as much as I may complain (especially if it's icy)  can be enjoyable and a productive time for new ideas.  Shown above are the second batch of mugs I threw on the wheel to fit the travel mug lids ordered off the internet.  This group - sigh - is probably too large for the lids, but great for experimenting with new ideas, especially with all this extra indoor studio time.  Shown are: iris, poppy, daylily and English primrose.  Except for the iris, each one took more than an hour to decorate.  That's a bit long for a mug, so these ideas may work better on other pieces.  After the glaze firing, the colors will deepen and the surface will be glossy.

Here's the 12 x 12 x 2 tile I started the last post with.  It has been fired once, dipped in the white glaze, and decorated with ceramic stains, needs one more firing to vitrify the glaze, which will make it glossy and deepen the colors.  (Yes, I see it's not even.)  The final step will be to epoxy a nest in the alcove.

​This is a design I used before on a long, oval tile and on one side of one of the square boxes.

Idea: to make square tiles that are about 2" deep, hang by a wire in the back, and may or may not have an inset.  After drawing and cutting out the pattern for a 12" square, like the one above, I decided to make them smaller and made a pattern for an 8".  These first ones I formed by folding the corners on a slab that was not allowed to stiffen, and the difficulty was the sides wanted to get all wavy and bow out; so the struggle was to keep them straight and also at right angles to the top surface.

I decided the solution might be to make wooden boxes for support.  But I came across a couple of pieces at the local Goodwill that were the right size and might work.

However, it didn't work as smoothly as I anticipated.  Tomorrow I'll work with them some more and see if the idea is feasible.

Meanwhile, I cut out three 8" squares and the four sides for each and will do it the slow way: let them set up to leather hard (the clay is stiff but not dry) and join the pieces together with score and slip.

In the past, for the arch tiles and birdhouse tiles, I've always thrown the sides on the wheel as a ring without a bottom, let it dry slightly, then altered the shape, put it onto a slab and joined the two together.  I never got the sharp right angles on the corners that I'm trying to get with this new method, and it was difficult to throw each ring on the wheel  exactly the same size for a set of tiles.

I have another idea.  Do it like I did the first one at the top, but support them with 8" x 2" pieces of wood or something stiff, then tape around the corners of the supports to hold the piece while it dries, checking it occasionally to make sure the sides are staying straight.  I'm trying to avoid doing it the slow way but still get the tile I want.