Follow these steps to see how handmade and hand painted
ceramics are made by our factories in Spain.
The best time to make the ceramics is in the summer when the sun can bake the clay. However, with the intense heat of the sun in Spain reaching over 100 degrees and the ovens firing over 2500 degrees it makes for a very very hot process to work under extreme heat.
STEP 1 - MAKING THE CLAY LOGS
Sand and other earthen materials are put
into the machine to form the clay. Clay is what is needed to make the ceramics. All our clay production is clean and from the earth of Spain.
STEP 2 - CLAY LOGS
After the clay is processed through the machine it comes out as processed clay
logs ready to be used to form shapes.
STEP 3 - CUTTING CLAY LOGS
The logs are cut to the appropriate size necessary depending on the ceramic to be made. The logs are put into the machine and cut to size and length needed.
STEP 4 - MOLDING THE CLAY
There are two ways to mold the clay to the desired shape.
A. THE POTTERS WHEEL
The artisan potter places the clay on the potters wheel and works the desired shape by hand. This takes a lot of experience to shape and make the product- especially on
a timely production schedule.
Our top potters, work endlessly on a daily basis creating individual product for us to bring to you!
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B. THE HAND MACHINE:.
The potters use the machine to mold the desired shape. Some of the pieces need to be molded with the machine and hand while other pieces are directly make on the potters wheel. All workers are experienced with no less than a couple generations of learning.
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STEP 5 - CLEAN AND SMOOTH THE CLAY
After the clay is shaped, the extra clay around the edges are scraped off to make it smooth. A sponge or razor and even sometimes a spoon is used along with some water to make it smooth and remove all the rough edges. It is either scrapped by hand or by running the bottoms of the pieces across a wet spongy moving conveyor belt.
Our production is carefully inspected to ensure all pieces are smooth and without any rough edges. VIDEOS
STEP 7: DRYING IN THE SUN
Once the ceramic has been made smooth it is put outside to dry in the indirectly sunlight. During the winter the drying takes much longer as the sun isn't as strong. Therefore, more pieces can be produced in the summer. But because of the intense heat many of the factories prefer to work during the entire night until early morning to avoid the extreme heat conditions.
STEP 8 : COOK IN OVEN
The first finished phase of the smooth ceramic is piled carefully onto a large brick platform to be put into the oven (KILN) for the first firing. It is cooked at 2500 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 hours.
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STEP 8 - COOLING DOWN
After the ceramics have been fired in the oven for the first time, they are taken out and cooled down for half a day. (Below are our garden pots getting ready for next step)
STEP 9: HAND PAINTING
After cooling down, the ceramics are then given to the artisans to individually hand paint each one.
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STEP 10 - PAINTED CERAMICS PRIOR TO GLAZING
Painted ceramics are now drying to get ready for the next step.
STEP 11 - GLAZING
Once the ceramics have been painted they go through a glazing process. Each piece of ceramic is individually hand dipped into a enamel glaze to completely cover it.
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STEP 12 - BACK IN THE OVEN
After the ceramics have been painted and covered in glaze it is time to go back into the oven for the final cooking.
At 2500 degrees Fahrenheit the ceramics are cooked again for the final time in the KILN.
They are put in for another 10 hours.
STEP 13 - FINISHED - THE COOLING DOWN TIME
Once the load comes out of the oven for the final time they are left to cool down for half a day. It is impossible to touch of them until they are cooled down.
The oven can be used to mix the first time firing it with the final time as seen above.
STEP 14 - FINISHED!
Here is a sample of one of our finished garden collections.
STEP 15 - PACKING TO SHIP
At last it is ready to be carefully packed and shipped. After 15 steps and endless hours and manpower the ceramic is ready for you to enjoy.
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We hope you enjoyed learning about the fine details, time and labor it takes to make just one ceramic. It's a long process and only true artisans who dedicate their life to this passion with true dedication are able to continue this tradition as a prosperous business.
When you purchase any of our ceramics you can be certain that it follows all the strict government and environmental laws. Each factory in Spain we work with has been creating ceramics on a daily basis for several generations. Many of them are actually a 3 generation working family!
We hope you will enjoy the ceramics even more after learning and appreciating the long and detailed process it takes to make them.
Villa Imports