36 
RERAMIC STUDIO 
TIN ENAMELED WARE. 
Charles F. Binns. 
(Third Paper.) 
Tiles are so admirably adapted to tin-glaze work 
and there is such an irresistible fascination about making 
and decorating thetmthat some instruction in the proced- 
ure will now be given. First of all a mold must be pre- 
pared, for if the tiles are to be properly set they must be 
quite uniform in size and thickness. Most tiles are made 
from pulverized clay by heavy pressure but this is not 
possible in the studio. The plastic tile, moreover, has 
many advantages, it is more like pottery and less mechan- 
ical in surface and is more easily glazed. The blank tile 
from which the mold is to be made may be formed either 
from clay or plaster. In the former case a perfectly true 
surface, such as a sheet of glass should be prepared and 
upon this the clay tile is set. If a sheet of clay be rolled 
out half an inch, or better, five-eighths in thickness a true 
form can be cut from it. A convenient size is five inches 
square though in this individual taste must rule. The 
face of the tile, the angles and corners must be perfectly 
square and true but the edges must taper upwards a trifle 
making the top face about one-sixteenth of an inch smaller 
than the bottom. 
More accurate work can be done if plaster be chosen 
for the model as this can be turned about in the hands as 
a carpenter would a piece of board. A slab of plaster of 
the required thickness is poured and both faces are made 
true and parallel. With ruler and square the tile is now 
marked out and cut to shape, the edges being tapered as 
in the case of the clay. The model, whether of clay or 
plaster being ready for molding — in the latter case having 
been well soaped — four strips of wood are prepared, each 
ab out three inches longerj than the tile and two inches wider. 
These are to form a frame to hold the mold. The model 
tile is now arranged on the glass slab and the wooden pieces 
set up around it on edge, leaving a space of an inch and a 
half or thereabouts on every side of the tile. The frame 
may be held at the corners with a morsel of soft clay, and 
four bricks, one against each board, will hold them against 
inside pressure. 
Plaster is now mixed and poured as already described 
and when firmly set the boards are removed, the mold 
turned over and the tile model taken out. The mold is 
now ready for use but as it is advisable to have several of 
these a case should be made in order to avoid the tedium 
of preparing a new model each time. In making the case 
the same process is gone through except that the mold, 
thoroughly soaped, is set, face upward, on the table, the 
four boards placed around it and the whole filled with 
plaster to the depth of two inches. This will give a model 
tile fast to a platform of the size of the mold and one mold 
after another can be made from this, simply soaping it 
each time and placing the boards as before. It may hap- 
pen that in the first pouring the mold and case will not 
separate. Plaster swells on setting and while this helps 
a mold to loosen itself from a case it causes the case to tight- 
en in the mold when being made. If this happens the 
Site model prepare!) \qt molding. 
mold should be broken rather than damage the case. New 
molds can easily be made but the case is more difficult 
and therefore more valuable. 
A stock of molds being made, while these are drying, 
attention may be turned towards the clay. The main 
difficulty in making tiles is to keep them straight. Clay 
has always a tendency to warp and unless some steps be 
taken to prevent this it will be impossible to secure a level 
lot of tiles. The reason for the warping is the plasticity 
of the clay. It cannot be made to shrink evenly and there- 
fore the mass twists. The remedy is to make the clay 
very porous. Tiles cannot be cast, they must be made 
from rather stiff clay. The necessary porosity is caused 
ROSES— F. ALFRED RHEAD 
Roses in natural colors; panels, gold tracery on dark cobalt blue ground. Gold edge. 
