Encaustic tiles production was perfected in Western Europe by the thirteenth century. Many of the earliest encaustic tiles were probably made by medieval Monks by embossing a pattern into the partly dried tile and then pouring or pressing another colour clay into the recess in either slip or plastic form.

When dried to leather hard state the surface was planed off to create a sharp image, prior to completed drying and subsequent firing. the Victorians produced similar encaustic tiles mechanically by pressing, which produced identical & precise products time and time again but which somehow lack the charm of the handmade article.

We at Sussex Terracotta have developed our own handmade technique which enables us to create a customers own design or reproduce a design to match existing or missing tiles.