One of the world’s last tiler masons
- Steve’s first tile restoration project was the longest one
- He belongs to probably every Stone Federation in the world
- He has worked in 22 countries, so far
Initially, Steve Sinnott trained to be a stone mason and carver in Wales. When he was an apprentice he joined a company that was working on a big project: an intricate Celtic knot tile floor of 3,000 square metres. Two of his colleagues spilled hydrochloric acid and destroyed most of the previous work, as a result he found himself in charge of fixing the floor by himself, working for three years and cutting a million small pieces out of slabs of marble for a total of about 2,500 square metres. What followed was a job in New York fixing damaged metro mosaics – very small hexagonal tiles. Ever since, Steve has travelled around the world working on historic tile restoration as well as doing his own mosaic artwork. Entirely self-taught, he has run his business Heritage Tiling & Restoration for over forty years.
Interview
- What is the purpose of restoration in your opinion?
- There is a big difference between conservation – stopping any further damage – and restoration, which is returning something – as much as possible – to the way it looked initially. I prefer the ethos of restoring because you produce something in a way that a few years later, you couldn’t tell that work had been done.
- You work with thousands of small pieces – where do you get your patience from?
- I haven’t got a shred of patience but I’m very stubborn. I think it’s a benefit of my Asperger’s diagnosis – it makes me obsessed with something and so I stick to it, it makes it hard for me to not succeed.
- How do you approach new projects?
- I start with one tile and finish with one – that’s how I think. It doesn’t matter what it is that I’m working on, I just pick it up and put it in. If you start contemplating the 100,000 pieces that need to be installed in a corridor it can be overwhelming – I try not to contemplate what finishing the whole floor will entail.
- Your work is very physical, right?
- If you can’t kneel down for one hour you can’t do this job. I had both of my big toenails taken off because I kneel all day; the wear and tear on your body is incredible. I have to use a hammer and several different tools which is often very repetitive hard work.
Steve Sinnott is a master artisan: he began his career in 1982 and he started teaching in 1992
Where
Steve Sinnott
