One
The base material for our tiles is a glass we have selected for its compatability with the enamel colours that we fuse with it – the base glass is specially imported from Poland, where it has been handmade in the traditional ‘drawn’ method.

This base glass first has to be cut to size for each individual tile, which may contain as many as five layers of glass, depending on the particular design.

Two
There are nearly forty designs within our five collections, and each one has its own unique recipe of ingredients which we have created. The specially selected colours are applied individually to the component parts of the tile.

In this picture, one of the five colours that goes into our Palazzo Parisi design (Lazio collection) is being applied to the squares of glass that will later be fused inside the tile.

Here, thin strips of glass which have been cut to size are being individually coloured and then will be fused back together again to form the Blue Stripe 9 design from our Stripe collection.

Three
The numerous layers of glass and coloured pieces need to be assembled carefully and transferred to the base of the kiln.

During the kiln-firing, the tiles are transformed as the glass and colour layers ‘slump’ and become fused together. Tiny air bubbles are trapped inside to give the tile its zingy texture, and some designs will have a wonderfully tactile surface. Here are some before and after pictures – both of the Kiwi and Palazzo Parisi designs.

Five
Once the tile is sufficiently cooled, the process of finishing the edges can begin. Each side of the tile is painstakingly ground flat and slightly bevelled using a series of four differently graded diamond discs. Then a final polish disc will give a beautiful shine to the glass. This part alone of the tile-making process can take an hour for a single large tile!