An old South Milwaukee company inspired this local art teacher to take up tile-making. Now he makes custom designs.
Erik S. Hanley
While working on a project documenting terracotta in Milwaukee County, Ben Tyjeski, a local artist and teacher, heard of South Milwaukee’s Continental Faience and Tile Company from a 2016 newsletter.
“I was interested to see what this tile company was about,” Tyjeski said.
After learning about the business, Tyjeski decided to write a book about the company and its President and General Manager Carl Bergmans.
He was also inspired to take up tile-making himself.
Tyjeski started working on the book in 2018, 10 years after the factory building in South Milwaukee was torn down at 909 Menomonee Ave. Helping with the book are Kelly Dudley and Kathy Roberts, two tile collectors from Phoenix.
Researching for the book, which he hopes to release next year, sparked an interest in Tyjeski, who was a sculptor through his college years, and he began to create tile himself.
“Tile-making is essentially drawing in clay,” he said.
Tyjeski, an art teacher at Garland Elementary in Milwaukee, grew up in Wisconsin Rapids but came to Milwaukee to attend the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee for his bachelor's degree in fine arts.
“I found there’s a lot of decorative architecture in the state, especially with tiles,” he said.
Tyjeski and his husband purchased a home on Milwaukee's west side, and he converted an area of it into a studio to work on his tile projects. Since taking up the art, Tyjeski has designed and created tile for small installations in exterior and interior work, such as wall panels, backsplashes, fireplaces, fountains and more. He also specializes in artistic panoramas and custom tiles.
Tyjeski gets inspiration from nature and exploring. Time spent growing up on his mother’s parents’ dairy farm and on hunting land his father inherited have been major influences.
“Tile-making reminds me of home. Those cultures — deer hunting and farming — were part of my upbringing but I didn’t feel like I fully belonged as a kid so I didn’t appreciate as much,” he said. “Now as an adult, I’ve grown to appreciate the natural beauty of Wisconsin and the Midwest. I’m not going to go hunting, but I appreciate the flowers and plants the animals want to eat.”
Recently, Tyjeski toured the Shorewood Fire Department with a group that prevented its demolition. No tiles are there now, but Tyjeski is planning to change that by installing some soon. He’s also working with the Shorewood Historical Society to create a reproduction of a backsplash that was torn down. He’s also recreated tiles for a fountain.
Since his book on Continental is taking up much of his time, Tyjeski said he hasn’t been available to do much tile work but is doing small commission projects. He said if someone is interested in commissioning a project, they can reach out to him via his website, www.tyjeskitile.com. All commissions will be considered on a case-by-case basis due to his workload.
Continental Faience has long and storied history
Tyjeski said the story of Continental and Bergmans “are the same story.”
The building was first the home of Fisk Rubber Company and later the Lawson Airline Company. Continental bought the building in 1923, incorporating in 1924 and operating until 1943. Bergmans, a Belgian immigrant, was an "artist, entrepreneur and influential throughout the Midwest," Tyjeski said.
“Continental was his greatest success,” he said. “The company’s existence is significant, operating through the Depression. They had tile made for installations from Manitowoc to Chicago, nearly every state east of the Mississippi.”
A pottery company operated there in the 1940s for “some time,” according to Tyjeski. After numerous other owners, the site was torn down in 2008 to make room for condominiums.
“The sad thing is ... the site the factory was on is now just a field of grass,” he said. “There were members of the community who tried to keep it from being demolished.”
Contact Erik S. Hanley at (262) 875-9467 or erik.hanley@jrn.com. Like his Facebook page and follow him on Twitter at @ES_Hanley.