Square Tiles Bringing Color to Every Space
This past week, we took a look at a particular bathroom that had a floor drain installed in the middle of a bathroom. This is a very functional and useful application for installing a system to divert water away from areas where it’s hard to dry. It’s very useful to have a floor drain like this in many bathrooms.
Today we’re also going to be looking at something similar to a ceramic or porcelain tile, but it’s a very different topic. Today’s topic is a lot more fun, from our perspective. We’re looking at several different examples of ceramic tile that are created and decorated in interesting colorful patterns.
The particular tiles shown below have some similarity between them, they’re both very colorful and have these intricate patterns. The one on the left is a bit more in the pastel range of colors and the one on the right has deeper saturated color with outlines around each of the elements of the design, with a surrounding line of bold, almost as if embossed. The one on the left is more of a Moorish type of design pattern while the one on the right is more similar to what we might find in Baroque art.
These tiles are part of a larger series of grouping of tiles that have a wide range of styles and designs. This grouping of tiles together are sometimes referred to as a Talavera style, originating in central Mexico
It is said that this particular style originated around the Valley of México in the middle of the 17th century with Spanish influence. This timeline fits into the history of the Spanish colonization of Mexico. These tiles, at the time, were made with locally sourced clay. Clays that work well for tile and ceramic generally have certain characteristics.
One on the first identifiable characteristics is plasticity. Wild clays are clays found in places previously unknown to contain clays. Clays are naturally present thorough the DC landscape for example. These clays are not present at the surface of the exposed earth at all places, but have a higher tendency to be found at some locations. For example, clays may have a higher tendency to be found at the embankment along waterways.
In some cases when eroded from the natural decay of stones, like limestone and shale, silts can be washed away. These silts can collect on the embankments of waterways. Essentially, the constituent small or fine materials from these rock or stone elements break down back to their original form.
They’re then able to be collected and used as clay. That clay can be used both in creating tile type elements like this or even other than fired roof tiles or other types of earthen materials. The high degree of plasticity that we mentioned means they can be shaped and molded without breaking or tearing apart. The best types of materials will also have a degree of controlled shrinkage which means that when they shrink naturally, they will shrink only to minimal amounts and will do so in a relatively consistent manner.
As well, these materials, when applicable for usage and clay and firing will have a degree of vitrification. Like brickwork, vitrification applies where the constituent materials change form slightly to bond to one another in a way that is less permeable, less porous, and less soluble.
We show more examples of these different tiles, here, above and below. Although highly varied, there are, as you can see, some repeating elements in the different patterns and repeating themes. Some of the same colors are used throughout the different tiles. For example, in the grouping of three tiles shown here in the pictures above and below, all three of them use a very similar yellow color. There are also similar blues between the ones at the ends and even though there’s a significant amount of diversity, there are continuing themes that bring these tiles together.
In this coming week we’ll look at different examples from the same style of Talavera tile.
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