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This artisan, Dennis Cuku, is the king of DIY tile, making his own "actually HANDMADE" product using a red-burding terra-cotta-like middle temperature clay body. He also makes glazes in-house and fires using 36 shapes. He mixes 129 glazes and produces about 50,000 ft.² of tile per year. Tile making presents many unique challenges, not the least of which is the need for consistency and predictability of surface character and color. This endeavour is made possible with data, a lot of it. Not just glaze recipes, but many forming, glazing and firing procedures and techniques that must be documented.

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These are thermal expansion curves for body, engobe and glaze (from a dilatometer, a device that measures it against increasing temperature). The upper line is the body. The center line is the engobe. The lower line is the glaze. The ceramic tile industry is very conscious, not only of glaze-fit but also engobe-fit. Engobes (slips) are employed to cover brown or red burning bodies so they glaze like a porcelain. Typically technicians tune the formulation of the engobe to have an expansion between the body and glaze. The body is highest so that during cooling, as it contracts, it puts a squeeze on the engobe (the engobe thus never finds itself under tension). The glaze has the lowest expansion, it is under a state of compression by the engobe (and slightly more by the body). This equilibrium enables the tile to wear for many years without crazing or shivering. Chart courtesy of Mohamed Abdelmagid.

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Strips of the opacified glaze have been laid over the dark-burning body and over the white engobe. These two mechanisms give the technician options to balance opacity against cost. Both the engobe and glaze contain zircon, it is very expensive and various factors influence where to focus its use and how much to use.
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