MAKE YOUR OWN TILES

Enlarge Image Image Gallery PHOTOS BY JOSEPH JANGBU SZALAY

Making decorative (and useful) tiles is as much fun as mixin' mud pies and, if you have clay and wood on your land, the project won't cost you a cent. Even if you have to buy clay, homemade tiles are far less expensive than any you can purchase.

ALL ABOUT CLAY

If you have poor drainage on your land, tilemaking material probably lurks just beneath the topsoil. Dig up a handful of the earth that you suspect might be clay. Does it feel pliable? If not, moisten the material with water. Roll some between your fingers to form a "rope", then bend the strand into a ring. If the loop has only a few cracks around its outer edges, go ahead and dig up about 10 pounds of the same soil ... it'll work just fine. However, if the material cracks, crumbles, or is full of sticks and stones, you'll have to look elsewhere or buy your clay.

Refractory companies, brickyards, and building suppliers usually sell dry bonding clay, which is inexpensive (around $2.75 for a 50-pound bag) and an excellent tile material. (This is the clay masons use when laying bricks for fireplace interiors.)

To mix commercial clay, fill a five-gallon pail half full of water. Add the powder to the bucket—slowly—until you can't put any more in without having the "dust" mound above the surface of the water. Put the remainder of your powder away until you want to do another project. Powdered clay will keep for years, but don't let it get wet. Should the material become damp or lumpy, you'll have to pulverize it with a sledgehammer and sift it through a window screen before you start mixing.

(Later, you can prepare large quantities of the substance and make hundreds of tiles ... or store the wet clay—ready for use—in plastic bags. But while you're still "learning the ropes", it's best to run through the whole tilemaking process on a small scale ... in order to familiarize yourself with all the steps before you attempt large projects.)

The morning following your first "clay mixing", pour off any water that's standing on the top of the bucket and spread a sheet of plastic or canvas on the ground in full sunlight. Now the fun starts!

Reach down into the pail, scoop up the whole soft, goody mess, and plop it onto the sheet. Smooth the material out with your hands and let it dry for several days. (Even if the weather's cold enough to freeze your clay, it will still dry.)

In the meantime, don't rush to the kitchen sink to wash your hands. Clay clogs drains and isn't nice to septic tanks. So just refill your mixing container with water and wash in it. Then set the bucket aside and use the some water to rinse off your hands while making tiles. (Eventually, the "waste" clay will sink to the bottom of the pail and—when you've accumulated a goodly amount—you can pour off the liquid, scoop out the clay, and dry it, too, on the plastic or canvas sheet.)