Download Our Catalog

Our 80-page, full-color catalog of Motawi Tiles (PDF, 20mb) can be downloaded for free, or ordered for $10 from the online store.

The Perfect Gift?

Let your special someone do the choosing.  Motawi Tileworks gift certificates are available online.

Motawi Tile in the Making

At the Motawi Tileworks we make three types of tile.  Single color tile that are either flat field tile, or have molded relief, and polychrome tile that have many colors.  Here is a brief description of how we make our tile:

To make polychrome tile an artist uses a stylus to etch a groove into a plaster mold.  When the mold is later filled with clay the line will become raised to contain the glaze.

To make a relief tile a  "master" mold is carved out of modeling clay. After etching or carving, a plaster working die is made.

Plaster die for 6x6 Tapestry is mounted in the press.

A slug of clay is placed on the bottom die.

The 60 ton press closes on the clay, forming the tile.  The extra clay flows out of the die.

 Air is used to release the tile from the top die and in this case the tile will be slid off the lower die.

The tile are placed on racks and await trimming.

Extra clay is trimmed away and recycled.  The tile is then dried and bisque fired.

To To hand press a tile, clay is stuffed into a plaster mold and then compressed with a rubber mallet.  A wire is then used to cut off the excess clay.  The plaster absorbs moisture from the clay. 10 minutes later, the tile has shrunk due to moisture loss and the tile can be popped out of the mold.

Unfired tile are very fragile until they have been fired. They are carefully loaded on edge to be bisque fired.  These tile are cooling off and will soon be unloaded for glazing.

Multi-colored Polychrome tile is made by pooling the glazes with bulb syringes into the areas delineated by the tiny, clay lines.

Single color tile are dipped in glaze.  The raw glaze color doesn't indicate the final color of the glaze.  In this case the finished tile will be green. 

After glazing, the tile are loaded back into the kilns for their final firing.

When the tile come out of the kilns they are checked over and sorted for packing and shipping.