Salernes traditional terracotta
and tile production
At terracotta Salernes, the family traditions are followed respecting strict rules.
In the past, three main stages were necessary to produce this product:
Extracting the clay and making the paste
The clay is extracted and degassed on site for one year to optimise its plasticity.
After delaying it with pure water, le mix is filtered, compressed and extruded to obtain the paste.
The manual molding and drying
The paste is then compacted with stone or a wooden mallet in specific molds.
The resulting tile is then taken out the mold, and the finish is also done by hand. After straightening on a marble table, the malons are put in individual wooden clayettes for natural homogenous drying.
The oven, firing and taking out of the oven
The layout in the oven is done manually tile by tile to get the best results.
The doors are closed for each firing. It starts with an three day steaming up to 400°C, then becomes intensive and heats up to 1050°C. The cooling is done naturally (15 days). After detroying the doors, each tile is removed manually, checked, sorted by color and wrapped.
Nowadays, our terracotta tiles are fired in a gas kiln, with different programs set up to give the tiles the desired appearance, while retaining the craftsmanship essential to their design.