Curved Subway Tiles

A contractor that we have worked with a few times in the past presented us with an interesting technical challenge; can we make curved tiles to fit on a cylindrical alcove with a 128cm diameter? The tiles were to be a standard 7.5cm x 20cm (3” x 8”) but needed to fit snugly against the curved wall.

A jig was made with a matching diameter to the wall. This was used as a mould to dry the tiles with the correct curvature.

Glazing and firing the tiles presented another problem, because the glaze wanted to pool in the centre of the tile in both the drying process and the glazing process. To avoid this problem we propped one end of the tile up after applying each coat of glaze. We did the same in the kiln during the firing.