Heraldry A&S Main Page

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Embroidered Tile kits: Why yes, it is embroidery, but the kits are based on historic patterns and can easily be used for other projects.

Medieval Tile Stamps: Commercial site offering lots of nice stamps, buy 'em or use the images for inspiration.

Majolica Tiles: Painting a tile sampler with ceramic glazes.

Ludere cum Igne: No instructions, but some nice pictures of incised/inlaid tiles being made.

Other Sites, Supporting Documents

WWW Tile Gallery:  Images of heraldic tiles, mostly inlaid. Click through to the home page for some nice articles on the history of tile.

V&A Access to Images: Search for   Heraldic Tile  to see a variety of tin-glazed painted and inlaid tiles with heraldic features.

Heraldic Tile Floor at the Getty:  Includes links to video on making majolica ceramics.

Heraldic Arts and Sciences:
Beyond the Banner and Shield
Part 9: Heraldic Tiles 

Tiles have always served a purpose as decorative elements. During the medieval era, decorated tiles often showed the status and wealth of the person able to furnish his home with such items. Generally speaking, tiles were used on floors or on walls and fireplaces to serve as protection as much as decoration. One most often finds incised tiles, stamped tiles, and tin-glazed (painted) tiles.

This project features simple painted tiles made with modern products. While I do plan to experiment with more period forms of tile making, these tiles are a simple, introductory project intended to provide easy and quick ways to increase heraldic display.

While you can certainly apply these tiles to your walls (I'm not certain of the durability of these materials for floors), the point of these articles is to give you greater opportunity for heraldic display in your SCA activities. Thus, these tiles can also serve as coasters, trivets, pillar candle holders, warmers (i.e., gently heat the tile and then place it in a bread basket with bread you want to warm), applications to furniture (as a part of a mosaic or as a substitute for an enameled plaque), trays, lids for boxes, paperweights, wall or door or chair hangings, and a variety of other things.

Now, of course, you can always make a good digital image of your arms and utilize Cafe Press to make transfer tiles, but that just isn't as much fun as making your own.

You will need:

  • A ceramic tile, easily found at your local hardware store for under a dollar.
  • Brushes
  • Acrylic low-fire enamels for glass/metal/ceramics
  • Your design
  • Water
  • Dishes for holding paints, thinning paints, mixing paints.
  • Stamps or stencils (optional)
  • Sharpie-type markers, dry-erase markers, or pencils (optional)
  • craft felt or other backing and glue (optional)

Before you can do anything, you have to decide exactly what it is you want to paint. By doing so, you'll be able to determine whether you can get what you want with a simple stamp or stencil, or if you will need to draw on the tile with something first.

I have used Sharpie-type markers to draw on tiles, but they are permanent, and the acrylic glass paints do not cover them completely; plan accordingly if you intend to go that route.  Pencil or Chalk are the recommended transfer tools, but some tiles are too slick to accept graphite or chalk. Dry erase markers can also work. The only codicil: don't even touch the outlines with the paint. Once the paint is on, anything it covers is on forever, as well.

Start with a clean, dry tile and a sketch of your design. If you are going to be drawing your design on to the tile, this is the time to do it. Prepare your paints. The paints can be thinned down with water for different effects, but be aware that the manufacturers recommend not thinning beyond 25% (i.e., 75% paint, 25% water). You must also be aware that the base color of the tile is going to be a part of your design; you can modify shades simply by applying less paint in those areas where the tile color makes the shade seem lighter/darker.

Prepare the paints. They need thorough stirring before you begin, especially the metallics. Thin them with water if you'd like a little more flow.

If you are painting freehand, then paint your colors as you will. A softer brush will leave fewer brush marks. Harder brushes leave strokes, which can be useful for patterning the paint.

If you are using a stencil, proceed with stencilling techniques.

If you are using a stamp, then I recommend you paint the colors on to the stamp rather than dip the stamp into the colors.

If you make mistakes, clean them up while the paint is still wet; cotton swabs can be very helpful here. Because these enamels are arcrylic based, you must wash out your brushes completely; paint left in the brush will harden the brush permanently, rendering it useless.

When finished, allow to dry overnight. In the morning, bake the tile according to the manufacture's instructions. Most low-fire paints require the item to be placed into a cold oven and baked for a certain amount of time once the oven comes up to temperature. Do not cook them in excess of the recommended time or temperature, as that will cause the paint to bubble, thereby ruining your tile. However, these paints can stand multiple firings, so you can add and change elements after baking.

Let the tiles cool. If you will be using them as trivets, holders, or coasters, glue craft felt or cork to the back of the tile to protect both the tile and the surfaces it will rest upon. 

Click on thumbnails to see larger pictures.

 

A number of these tiles were made with the help of the people I work with in my modern job. We were experimenting, trying to decide what sorts of crafts we would enjoy doing together. I drew a quick, lopsided fleur-de-lys on a piece of paper and cut it out to make a simple stencil. After I taped the stencil to the tile, one of the ladies painted it with green lo-temp paint. We let it dry, I outlined the fleur-de-lys with black, and after more drying time, popped it into the oven to bake. We did two tiles like this.

I baked them too long, and the paint bubbled. So we took the opportunity to experiment on ways of correcting the problem. This tile was sanded down, removing about 1/3 of the paint layer. It gave the tile an interesting distressed look. 

This is the second bubbled tile; this was was painted over in gold and relined with red and black. Once the paint dried, we baked it as per manufacturer's instruction. Interestingly, the strong light of the scanner makes the underlayer of green appear more prominent than it appears in normal lighting conditions.

The second firing went well, no noticeable problems. However, when I next choose to paint an earthenware tile, I'll use a cream-colored paint, more like a period inlaid tile. Other colors just don't look right on the clay background, and I now have a clearer understanding of why English tilers were so famous for their inlaid tiles.

The next experiment featured stamps and a simple charge painted freehand. We brushed the colors on to the stamp and pressed the stamps firmly to the surface.

The freehand charge was primarily an experiment in how thinning the paint would work; while a thinned paint certainly flowed better and left fewer brush strokes, it also changed the way the paint would cover the tile, and we discovered a number of otherwise unnoticeable high spots on the tile. A second coat of paint would have improved the situation.

click on picture for closer look at tile tokens

Click here for period, decorated game tokens

A nine-mans-morris game, with small ceramic mosaic tiles that have been painted with the Sept Pendray badge to serve as game tokens.

I have also given out these small, painted mosaic tiles as favors when attending A&S fairs and the like.

This board also appears in two other articles on this site: here and here.

The two easily attainable arcyrlic enamels, Liquitex Glossies and Pebeo Porcelaine. I prefer the Porcelaines, but the Glossies work well, too. They are both readily available brands, and easy to use. I'll be using them again for a couple of glass painting projects and a metal project. It will be interesting!