All
the hand painted ceramic decorative tile borders in these series are
painted with the unique technique of under glaze ceramic hand painting.
The tile border pattern is first outlined with the black color and then the
rest of the colors are hand painted on the tile. Once all the colors are
applied the tile is glazed with a transparent lead free glaze and placed
in a ceramic kiln. The kiln is fired up to a temperature of 1000 degrees
centigrade (red hot) whereby the ceramic colors are sealed with the
melting of the transparent glaze on the surface of the tile. The firing
usually takes a cycle of about twenty four hours from start to finish.
A
second type of decoration which we use is that of in glaze hand painted
ceramic art tile decoration. In this case the black outline is applied
to the surface of a glazed and fired tile and then the colors applied by
hand. The tile borders are again fired to a temperature of about 1000 degrees
centigrade where the colors melt into the glaze of the tile borders.
All
of these techniques have been handed over to us throughout more than 80
years of the Balian Tile history from father to son and to daughter.
There are very few other tile studios worldwide which match the
intricacy and brilliance of the patterns which we hand paint to this
present day.
The
ceramic decorative tile borders and pottery of The Balian Armenian Ceramics have been
exhibited all over the world in various museums and institutions.
