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| Our 'how to' guide to ordering hand painted tiles Why decide on bespoke hand-painted tiles --> Whatever your motivation, this guide is for you. What do we do? In other words - you can have anything you like. Is it a permanent finish? Choosing a background tile It is perfectly possible to hand-paint onto most ready-glazed tiles (see ‘What is on-glaze’ below). Rarely a glazed tile will not re-fire successfully in which case we can usually recommend a similar looking alternative. Understanding glazes Understanding crazing The degree of crazing can be encouraged by the addition of specific
ingredients to the glaze recipe allowing clients to choose a deliberately
more heavily crazed finish, perhaps teaming it with a chunky hand-made
tile. A wipe-over with pigment once the tile is fired for the final
time helps to accentuate the crazing for a finish that can be extremely
effective, particularly in a more rustic style of kitchen. What is ‘on-glaze’, ‘in-glaze’,
and under-glaze and what do I need to know?
On-glaze – this generally means painting
onto a tile that has already been glazed and fired. That makes
it suitable for adding decoration to virtually every plain glazed
tile you can buy off the shelf, (although some re-fire better
than others). This technique usually requires several firings
as each layer of raw colour must be stabilised by firing before
the next is added. As on-glaze can be used with almost any glazed
background tile it can be a good choice if – for whatever
reason – you are already committed to, or particularly want,
a certain background tile. It is also a good one if you need to
faithfully reproduce specific colour shades and/or you need to
produce a design using many colours as the layers of colour can
be added more or less indefinitely until the right effect is achieved.
In-glaze – There are two main types of in-glaze technique. The first is often referred to as Maiolica or Delftware, this is an ancient technique of painting directly onto raw tin-glaze. Quite an exacting skill (any careless brushstrokes are impossible to erase) it generally utilises a range of natural pigments that can be mixed to produce a limited range of colours, the most common being cobalt blue, manganese brown and copper oxide green. Another technique uses stains that give a larger range of colours than the natural pigments. Both techniques (which can be combined) give a softer, more mellow effect than on-glaze, and are particularly appropriate for the recreation of most older tile designs. Underglaze – As you may already have guessed, underglaze involves the complete decoration of the tile followed by dipping in a clear glaze before firing. The colour of the background tile is still visible after firing in the undecorated areas. Underglaze is a more unusual technique than the others. We will occasionally recommend it as a starting point for a complex design to give a soft, background to subsequent on-glaze decoration. How to decide on a design
 Do
you need to match or tie-in with a fabric or wallpaper?
- With nothing more than a reasonable sized sample of fabric or
wallpaper, we can extract or reproduce ideas for your hand-painted
tiles. Either this can be the main design for a panel or single
décor tiles (or both), or perhaps just as inspiration for
a tiled border to be used on its own or as a frame for a decorative
panel of tiles depicting something else of your choice. Even samples
of the wall or wood paints you have chosen can help us with deciding
on a range of colours for your commission. When a client despaired of finding tiles to co-ordinate with the fabric they had chosen for curtains, the solution was simple. We used a sample of the fabric to inspire this classic blue and white design for the basin splash back.
Do you have pictures of
favourite objects, paintings, pets, children or scenery that you
would like to recreate? - Good, clear photos of various
subjects can be hand-painted as they are or used as the basis
for a design that incorporates several elements. Even pages torn
from magazines or art books with a favourite still life are excellent
sources of design ideas.
For example, if you have a house with a handsome exterior, you might enjoy looking at it even when you are in it. Here an owner provided us with a photograph of their house for us to hand paint.
 Another
popular theme is the tile-artist’s interpretation of a much-loved
landscape. One client gathered together favourite scenes from
the whole village where he lived and asked us to create a design
that incorporated them all. Another insisted on including all
their pets, children and a favourite herd of cattle in a rural
landscape while a recent commission we completed had just one
subject – the client’s prize sheep.
Measuring up Alternatively, you can do it yourself in which case a detailed plan of the entire room is rarely necessary. Instead, a total calculation of the area needed is fine for the background tiles, with more accurate measurements of height and width needed for areas where you intend to have a decorated panel. Working out how many decorated and background tiles you
will need
To give you some idea, on top of the cost of the background tiles, we calculate our fee on the basis of a price per tile decorated. A simple border or single décor tile may cost £6, and a heavily decorated tile as part of a panel may cost as much as £30, although the average cost per tile is nearer £15 which compares well with many off-the-shelf designs. If an initial idea exceeds your budget, there are lots of ways to reduce costs without compromising too much on what you want. For example:
• Sometimes money spent on an expensive background tile can
be wasted when a more economical background tile looks just as good
after being painted.
• A panel designed for a large area, perhaps over a stove, can entirely fill the space. Alternatively, a smaller panel can look very effective surrounded with plain tiles (with or without a decorated border).
• If you have a focal point with a decorated panel of tiles, you can choose to tie it in with border tiles and perhaps single décor tiles in other parts of the room or use plain tiles in the rest of the room if budgets are tight. Getting a quote An initial telephone call is a good start and we are happy to share ideas and give estimates in this way. Designs and costs can then be agreed via post, fax and e-mail.
Payment can be by cash, cheque or credit/debit card and we can accept card payments over the telephone.
Background tile – an undecorated tile, used as a base for hand-painting but generally, for consistency, also used, plain glazed for tiling the other parts of the room where hand-painted tiles are not required. Panel – a block of hand-painted tiles that go together to make up a decorative picture or panel, sometimes with a frame of border tiles. Border tiles – a narrower tile than the main ones, usually used along the edge of the tiled area or, often, around a decorated panel. Single décor – a decorated tile with a single design that can be used on its own. Grout – paste used to fill the gaps left between the tiles. Usually white but available in a range of colours. The width of the gaps is a matter for personal preference. |
Click here to see a selection of our past commissions for kitchens Click here to see a selection of our past commissions for bathrooms |
Are
there any special features or obstacles that need to be ‘designed
in’? - For example, a flue coming up the middle
or side of the space above the kitchen range where you would
like your hand-painted tiles is far from disastrous. A flue
or other unattractive pipework can be very successfully worked
around, if re-routing of the pipework is not an option, by drawing
the eye to elements of the design on one or both sides.
Believe
it or not, this beautifully rich, complex design was painted onto
a very economical white background tile.
Confining
this design to just eight tiles, plus a decorative border, limits
the cost of this project but makes a marvellous focal point when
surrounded by plain tiles.
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