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.

This web site and its contents are © 2010 Fay Jones Day. All rights reserved.

This website was made on a Mac.