José Angulo Jerez has been crafting decorative tiles for years. The materials he uses are handmade or industrial clay tiles in bisque (unglazed) condition, of various sizes and with various finishes; powdered ceramic glazes, either white or coloured; ceramic colour powders; flux to add to… the colourants; and water, for preparing glaze and colour suspensions.

José prepares glazes by mixing them in suitable proportions with water. He then strains the suspension to remove any lumps or impurities. He prepares colours in much the same way, adding the right amount of flux to achieve a perfect bond with the glaze and to give the end result an even lustre.

He uses various techniques, most notably the majolica or sobre-cubierta method. In this technique, once the tiles have been thoroughly cleaned and inspected, a thin coating of normally white glaze is applied to give a smooth white surface. Any glaze residue on the edges and in particular on the back of the tiles must be carefully cleaned to prevent them from sticking and being spoiled. The tiles are then numbered on the back for subsequent ordering and laying, and are arranged on a stand forming a unit of the desired size and proportions, like a canvas. Then the design is drawn over all of them. For this there are various methods such as using a projector, tracing an image, stencilling with carbon, drawing straight onto the glaze with a white pencil or using a brush. Once the design is complete, the colours – special pigments for ceramics with mineral oxides mixed with flux and water – are applied with brushes, with white areas being left unpainted. After this every tile must be gingerly removed and placed in special stands called gacetas (saggars), and fired in a kiln at 980ºC. The surface after firing is completely smooth.

In November 2017 the Andalusian government awarded José the “Andalucía, Calidad Artesanal” craft label.