Home made tiles...

[Mylovelyhorse]

Well MrLovelyHorse is a potter, so there's all this equipment and material just sitting here - at my disposal.

So. I decided to make some tiles. We (well, he, really!) researched what clay to use, I decided what glaze I liked the look of, and then decided to keep it simple - blue painting on white glaze. It was good enough for the Dutch, so I reckoned it was a good place to start.

Here are the first results. Some geese (just in case you can't recognise them!), and some paisley-ish patterns...

[Green Aura]

I love those!!!!

I saw you said on another thread that some were going to be given as presents. I think you should go into business.

[Silver Ether]

They are great ... I don't need any tiles but if I do ... I know where to ask...

[spitfire]

love the goose tiles, i to think you should go into business.

[old tree man]

well done they are just fantastic how long does it take to make an individual tile

[Mylovelyhorse]

Thank you all for the very kind comments!

It's not a quick process.
First you roll out the clay and cut the tiles to size. You can probably make 20 or so in about an hour.
Then the tiles have to dry as slowly as possible, whilst remaining completely flat. That takes at least a week.
Then they get fired in the kiln for the first time - which is around an 8 hour process.
When they're cool and out of the kiln, they can be glazed with the white glaze. 20 tiles wouldn't take long to glaze - about 30 mins?
Then they have to dry again. Overnight is good.
Then I get to paint them with whatever design I like. A quick design like the goose might take a couple of minutes. The paisley ones probably 20 mins per tile.
Then they get fired in the kiln again. Another 8 hours or so.

So ... 20 tiles would take about 3-4 hours of direct time, 16 hours of firing time, and quite a bit of waiting time for things to dry - though of course they need no input from me at that point! And I'm sure if I were making lots, I could make some time savings...

[Helsbells]

I love the tiles, they are so great, really love the goose.

I have used clay and glazes before but never used a type that you cam paint with like with the blue, I understand you put the white glaze on first, what tyoe of paint do you then use on top for the blue?

[Millymollymandy]

I like them (I'm a sucker for blue on white pottery especially Delft!). It must be great fun doing them.

[Thomzo]

Oh wow! They're brilliant

Zoe

[Mylovelyhorse]

Helsbells - the blue is cobalt carbonate. It comes as a powder, so has to be mixed with water to get the right sort of shade. It's ridiculously potent, so half a gram of powder is going an awfully long way so far!

I'm using it as if it were a watercolour paint - so using standard watercolour brushes etc.

I'm sure other pigments would work too, but I really fancied mastering blue/white before I moved onto anything else.

[Jessiebean]

I think they are just gorgeous- OH was so inspired by them he was trying to think of reasons we could have a goose... not on a tile... a real goose....