“Any factory can make stuff, we make gifts that celebrate your town or favorite place.” –Tanya Bernard
Shopping local has played a big role in the partnerships WaterFire has fostered, ScreenCraft Tileworks being one of them. As a community-based organization, supporting other local businesses is at the core of who we are, and we’re proud to work with these partners to create WaterFire souvenirs for our many national and international visitors. The WaterFire-ScreenCraft partnership began at the end of 2014 with the launch of the marble magnets, and since then, ScreenCraft has supplied WaterFire with 620 magnets, 461 bracelets, and various other products like the new Wine Charms!
What makes ScreenCraft especially unique is the fact that each item gets made one at a time from real, authentic marble as opposed to resin molds which many other companies opt for. The tile is all unique, with each piece different from the last. “Everything is created and assembled here,” says Tanya, starting with the marble prep process in which each tile is hand-cleaned and quality-checked. Even picking the perfect marble has become a crucial part of the process. In fact, ScreenCraft has created relationships with the families in Italy and Turkey who run the marble quarries. For ScreenCraft, a company with many long term employees, these personal relationships with other family-run companies are so important.
ScreenCraft Tileworks didn’t always go by that name, and it wasn’t always focused on tiles! The Champagne family-run, third generation business actually found its initial success in custom signage and photography, which influenced the customizable nature of its current tile business. Nowadays, Tanya explains that the company is “very much about place and making finer souvenirs people keep,” and even people’s pride in place, which is at the heart of what WaterFire does.
ScreenCraft equally enjoys its partnership with WaterFire, explaining: “I love that you’re a Rhode Island event and organization, and I love that our product is Rhode Island made, and I think that’s the epitome of shopping local…it’s a very arts-oriented state.” Both ScreenCraft and WaterFire agree that it’s great to support other local businesses as well as the Rhode Island community through events like WaterFire, where every ounce of the proceeds is going back to support the event itself. Being able to bring pride to the state of Rhode Island and the city of Providence is such a special experience.
“When I think of WaterFire, I think of how it celebrates Providence…there’s nothing like it, it’s very, very special” -Tanya Bernard
Click here to shop the entire WaterFire line of ScreenCraft products.
Thank you to the ScreenCraft team for giving us a behind the scenes look at how these fantastic products are made.
