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Designing with tile

Tile Making

 

Tile Making

The process of making tile in a one woman studio is much different than the processes used by tile factories. On this page you can see some of the differences.

 

I design the tile on paper first. I then roll out a slab of clay with my slab roller. (I made my early tiles using a rolling pin.) I then sculpt an original tile.

When the tile is finished, I pour plaster to make a mold, from which I can make duplicate tiles. The mold must cure for several weeks, before I can make my first tile.

While tile factories use huge hydraulic presses to press clay into their molds, I have found that standing on my clay and mold works very well.

The new tile must dry for a week or two, before I fire it the first time. This firing takes 12 hours to fire and 12 hours to cool.

I apply the glazes with a brush. Many of the glazes require three coats.

Shown here are tiles loaded in the kiln for glaze firing.

Each kiln load takes about 6 1/2 hours to glaze fire and 12 hours to cool down, before I can open the kiln and see how the tiles turned out.

 

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