Perfectly imperfect

You will find a variety of different tile bodies within our collections – from paper smooth, dead-flat tiles in the Marlborough Matts collection, to the gently undulating Savernake collection, to our exclusive, hand crafted, rustic, artisan biscuit.

Tiles that feature our rustic biscuit have an irregular beauty. The process of making them results in natural, beautiful imperfections, meaning that no two tiles are the same, and each one brims with character.

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The Ana collection

Powder Blue Squares

Rustic slider isles islay skinny metro brick bath portrait WEB

The Isles collection
Islay Skinny Metro Bricks

Rustic slider Wilding 11 lifestyle white G web

The Wilding collection

Rustic slider Ullswater Packhorse Limestone Grout Rhubarb Close Up WEB

The Ullswater collection
Packhorse square tiles

Rustic slider isles uist 6x21 styled board webres

The Isles collection
Uist skinny metro bricks

Rustic slider KEN SQ DUSK LIFESTYLE SILVERGREY GROUT WEB

The Kensington collection
Dusk square tiles

Rustic slider Kennet Winterborne White Grout Hands Coffee Poured Close Up WEB

The Kennet collection
Winterborne White Skinny Metro Bricks

Rustic slider KEN SQ JADE LIFESTYLE MEDGREY GROUT WEB

The Kensington collection
Jade square tiles

Rustic slider one kitchen five ways halcyon wild rose french limestone7

The Halcyon collection
Wild Rose square tiles

HAND CRAFTED

One of a kind

At Marlborough Tiles, we pride ourselves on our ability to make what others can't. Tiles that feature our rustic biscuit have an irregular beauty that cannot be replicated in mass produced tiles. Light shimmers across their uneven surface, reflecting around a space. They have an heirloom quality, and with their characterful edges and occasional crumpled corners, would have been as at home in a country house a hundred years ago as they are today.

This biscuit is a feature of numerous favourite collections, including our Isles, Kennet, Aged Crackle, Ullswater, Halcyon, and Kensington collections, as well as our hand painted Delft, Wilding, and Ana collections.

The Process

Made by hand

Creating our exclusive rustic biscuit takes a great deal of time and care. As a result of the process, each tile is slightly different, telling the story of how it was made.

Hand pressed

The highest quality raw red clay is pressed by hand into specially designed frames, and allowed to dry.

First firing

The tiles go through the kiln for their first firing. As a result of the hand pressing, their surface is rugged and organic with rough edges.

Priming

They are then primed with engobe, which makes their surface water tight and prepares them for glaze application.

Our colours

Our glazes are renowned for their depth and complexity. Each of our colours is individually mixed, selecting from over 50 raw pigments and stains that are expertly combined to create the precise nuance of shade we are looking for.

Layers of glaze

Numerous layers of glaze, in different hues and weights, are poured directly across the organic surface of the tiles, which helps us to achieve the beautiful depth of colour our tiles are renowned for.

Stroke by stroke

For hand painted tiles, our artists paints each stroke of the design into raw glaze or engobe, using the traditional Majolica technique. The tiles are then fired for a final time.

Creating a crackle

After their final firing, we create our signature crackle, by cooling the tiles at a precise speed and temperature. The tile body and glaze contract at slightly different rates, creating an imperfect glaze fit. As a result, the glaze shatters, creating a network of fine lines which form an organic pattern of remarkable delicacy.

Our rustic biscuit