The Art of the Tile : Alchemy Achieved Through Firing Earth

The first examples of tiles are found in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia and extend back in the history of the Turks to the ninth century. It is undoubtedly one of the mysterious branches of art when one thinks of the methods of production like the shaping of he earth at various levels the coloring firing and baking it. Because while the artist fires the earth in ovens at hundreds of degrees he produces colors and motjfs without mixing them up and this seems virtually like alchemy. Today the motifs on a pottery plate that we pick up or on the tile squares that we observe with astonishment on the wall of a mosque offer us the artistic style of a period. They reflect he experience used in pottery production passed without a mistake from father to son and from generation with their gleaming magical appearance.