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Ceramic Tiles-The Real Story

Mon 15 Jan 2007 - 16:05

Ceramic Tiles-The Real Story
By Sandro Vivolo

The first clay objects found belong to 27000- 30000 years ago, mostly religious small statues.
Because these objects were very brittle, to avoid the risk to became soil again, man used to bake them.

"Ceramic" or "baked clay" is truly a page of human history where we can read how during all these years civilization was start .
Even this period name's was devoted to the ceramics which is: "Neolithic age" from the Greek NEOS LITHOS (new stone).

In the same time were men that already knew the existent of small clay containers with the shape of a bell.

These people were called "The men of the age of the ceramics" or "The bells men"
How ever they weren't the only ones that discovered ceramics and used for everyday purpose;
the big civilizations around the Nile River and in the Middle East already knew about the use of clay recipients and also of clay blocs to build their homes.
Around these times the Egyptians discovered the practice of colouring glaze which was used for their bricks or recipients.

Later on, ceramic arts moved to Greece, however just for home purpose and not for construction uses.

Greeks became famous for their clay vases from Corinth.
In fact with the term "Karamus", that originally meant "clay" we have now the word "Ceramic".
During the great Roman Empire ceramic arts were neglected, to appear as architectonical elements in the Middle East buildings especially in China where at this time porcelain was discovered.
Samarre's artisans(Tiger) needed to create beautiful objects for their royal families so they tried to cover grey clay with a white layer; making for the first time in history the "majolica" ceramics.
Looks like that around the middle of XIII century some Persian ceramists immigrated to Spain, bringing along the recipe to make gorgeous "smalti".
Majorca island (Spain) became the centre of these skills; in facts dealers from this period going to Italy carried with them a lot of these merchandise like vases, pots and cups which they took the name Of "Majolica" from the location "Majorca".

After few years Italian ceramists discovered the secrets of these "smalti" founding in Faenza (Italy) the head quarter where exporting the ceramics all over Europe.
These precious merchandise coming from Faenza (Italy) rapidly adopted the name "Faience".
Faience majolica declined when a man named Bottger invented for the first time in 1709 white paste porcelain and a year earlier the scientist Walther Von Tschirnhausen discovered the gress which is the first stage for porcelain.

The first man to discover ceramic tiles and making of it an industrial production was Josiah Wegdwood.

With tiles, ceramics discovered a new beginning going from XVII century up to now days and the centre was Italy again.

In this period ceramic was made in tiles and used as floors and walls covering and used just by the wealthiest family houses because too expensive. Having a floor tiles brought to these homes a very impressive effect.

With the industrial age ceramics and especially tiles knew their major grandeur because made by machine and not by hand like before.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sandro_Vivolo
http://EzineArticles.com/?Ceramic-Tiles-The-Real-Story&id=412885


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