Cement Tile Making
Our cement tiles are handmade using age old making processes...
Our artisan encaustic tiles are designed in house and handmade by a fourth-generation family business near Cádiz in Southern Spain. The tile factory, which specialises in traditional techniques, had closed down when Bert & May founder Lee Thornley discovered it. It reopened in 2010 to produce our designs.
The tiles are made from a mixture of cement, marble, sand and natural pigments. We stick to natural pigments (no synthetics whatsoever) so our colours have a timeless feel, inspired by the gorgeous hues of our archive of antique tiles. And we add the crushed marble to make our tiles extra durable and to give them their distinctive raw, Bert & May finish. They are created using a bespoke metal mould, which is made specifically for each design.
The coloured liquid cement is hand poured into the sections of the mould to create our distinctive patterns. The tiles are then manually pressed with a hydraulic press, dipped in water for four to five hours and left to dry in the Spanish sun for two weeks.
Each tile takes around five minutes to make, and one craftsman typically produces a maximum of 150 tiles a day. Once dry, the finished tiles are packed and shipped!
Scroll down to watch a video of this amazing making process.
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