Hijos de Julio López C.B.
TELEPHONE:
ADDRESS:
Carretera de Coca s/n, 40470 Navas de Oro
ACTIVITY
The López brothers, who form the firm Hijos de Julio López C.B., are the third generation of a family devoted to the manufacture of handmade Mudéjar bricks.
They craft their products by traditional techniques for restorations and also new construction, making clay bricks, tiles, adobe bricks… and special pieces of any shape or size.
Their manufacturing process starts with the selection of earth. This is then ground, with various clays being mixed in, and the mixture is kneaded until a suitable blend is achieved. Unlike their father and grandfather, who would soak earth in a basin and knead it by horsepower, they use electric mills to save time and labour.
Once the mix is ready, they take it to the cutting area and pour it into moulds, which are left on the ground to dry in the air and sun. When the bricks have dried out, they are stored or transferred to the kiln for firing with biomass. This fuel is preferred because it burns more briskly and makes the fired object come out more nicely, in addition to being a sustainable energy source.
TRAINING
The López brothers learned their trade from their father and grandfather by watching and assisting them from a very early age in the family brickworks in Navas de Oro (Segovia province).
SELECTED WORK
A large portion of their output is for the restoration of historic buildings, such as the Castle of Coca (Segovia province), the Castle of La Mota in Medina del Campo (Valladolid province), the Mercedarian Convent in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid province), the perimeter wall of… the Casa de Campo park in Madrid, and many churches, stately houses and other buildings across Spain.
