The Chelsea Standard
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Eclectic Eckland
Tileworkx specializes in stone, glass art
By Sheila Pursglove, Special Writer
PUBLISHED: November 22, 2007
Scott Eckland takes some sand, a few gallons of compressed air, a great idea and throws it all at a piece of tile. The result? An eclectic and unique piece of art.
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Eckland - owner of Chelsea Tileworkx and ChelseaSigns.com - got into the tile art business almost by accident.
"We started working with tile a few years ago as kind of a joke," he says. "A friend had a tile with a cute little saying about wine. It had broken in half and she epoxied it together. I went back to the shop and made a new tile and gave it to her for Christmas - and the rest is history."
Eckland's Chelsea Tileworkx business specializes in etching stone, glass, and tile with artwork, phrases and sayings to create one-of-a-kind gifts or mementoes.
The tiles also make unique fund-raising ideas for schools and organizations, corporate gifts, and customized gifts for weddings, births, anniversaries, retirements, house-warming gifts, pet mementoes and more. Tiles can be used as kitchen trivets, hot plates and coasters, displayed on stands available through the online store, or Eckland will drill holes so they can be hung on the wall.
His tile creations are on exhibit in the new Downstairs Gallery at 105-1/2 S. Main Street in Chelsea. Several dozen more tile designs are available in an online gallery at chelseatileworkx.com where visitors can select from dozens of designs, quotes and sayings.
"We can also customize a tile," he says. "Popular ones have been the child handprint tiles. I can make an outline of the child's hand, take the child's handwritten name and etch this into a tile. We've created these for Christmas gifts as well as all the gift-giving holidays."
"The tiles make a great conversation piece. We've got some great quotes and artwork on our tiles. We can take almost any phrase or artwork and etch it into a tile."
The Web site has drawn visitors from as far away as Alabama, Colorado, Washington, Arizona, Texas, Illinois, Iowa, and California.
"We received a call from a government office in California wanting to etch a tile for an employee that was retiring," Eckland says. "They found us on Google."
Eckland - who was recently selected as one of Heritage Newspaper's "One to Watch: 20 under 40" business owners in Southeast Michigan - first started selling the tiles online. Then he and a group of artists and artisans found a place on Main Street for the Downstairs Gallery. "It was a great location on Main and very nice space inside," he says.
The art gallery is a co-operative venture, where Eckland's tiles are joined by John Mitchell's paintings, Janet Alford's watercolors, Joan Kelly's pottery and Marsy Doan's beadwork.
Eckland designed the gallery's logo and brand, and its exterior sign. Working full time with chelseasigns.com makes him somewhat of a silent partner in the gallery, but he contributes by doing marketing ads and promotions, website design and signs for the gallery.
Art is in Eckland's genes. Both grandparents were painters and artists; his uncle is a master sign craftsman and his cousin has run neon sign shops, embroidery shops and sign shops.
As a boy, the Montana native spent summers with his grandparents in New Mexico, and would take scraps of wood from his grandfather's cabinetmaking shop "to build all kinds of stuff. I would also get those big dried gourds and carve artwork into them."
Eckland got his artistic feet wet right out of high school, bending neon tubes at his cousin's sign company in Hagerman, New Mexico.
Then he and his wife Amy - the pair met when they were both students at the University of Kentucky — moved to Chicago where Eckland worked in the production department of a sign shop and ended up running the custom sign department.
From there he had a few jobs in graphic design studios and was one of two designers in the late 90s at Shar Music Company, producing catalogues, advertisements as well as promotional campaigns for various sales and products.
"That was my last full time gig. I quit my job on a Friday, and my daughter was born on Saturday," he says. "We opened up shop in downtown Chelsea and we've been busy ever since. That was the beginning of chelseasigns.com.
"I had enough freelance clients to grow the business and that's just what we've done. I've done freelance work for several trade show companies and work exclusively with one doing all of the trade show design work they need. We've been able to work on some large projects for major automotive companies as well as smaller businesses."
Although Amy works as an environmental specialist in Ann Arbor, she also helps with the business. "She really enjoys helping with the tiles and helps out at the shop," Eckland says. As the parents of two small children — Katherine, 6, and Grayson, 3, the couple keeps their small shop kid-friendly, he says.
Eckland, whose company is a Washtenaw County Waste Knot Partner, believes in "being green" and donates extra paper and scraps of vinyl to area pre-schools and art programs, in addition to recycling cardboard and white papers.
Signs he designed and created are all over Chelsea - the Chelsea House Victorian Inn, Gourmet Chocolate CafÈ, Cranesbill Books, Winans Jewelry, Chelsea Christian Fellowship Church, River Gallery, Vogel's and Foster's and more.
Vehicle and window lettering is another talent, and his work adorns the windows of The Common Grill, Chelsea Village Hair Studio, Chelsea Gallery, Chelsea River Gallery, The Potting Shed, and is seen on the awning for The Middle Bead. He designed and produced the walking map on the side of the Chelsea Market downtown as well as the brochure designs for the Steps Up program.
He created signage for SummerFest and the Chelsea Hometown Holiday weekend, as well as many of the street pole banners in the downtown area.
"For the past two years we've handled all of the marketing for SummerFest — radio, print ads and brochures as well as
sign design and production," he says. "It's been a great gig and it's fun to be involved in a community event like this."
Eckland has donated his services to the Chelsea Center for the Arts, Chelsea United Way, Faith in Action and other local organizations.
He also donated the website design for the Chelsea Community Fair.
"Growing up in Montana we were always involved in the fair and 4-H," he says. "I wanted to help out the fair with a successful web presence to promote the fair and to give back a little to 4-H."
Sheila Pursglove is a freelance writer. She can be reached at bingley51@yahoo.com.
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