Silver City's Clay Festival officially began Wednesday, although activities have been taking place for a couple of weeks already. Workshops, youth activities, tours of the Syzygy Tile Factory and an exhibition and reception all took place. Today's photos give our readers a glimpse behind the scenes where Syzygy's handmade tiles are formed, fired, glazed and packaged.
Photos by Shirin McArthur
2014 Clay Festival Tour of Syzygy Tileworks
2014 Clay Festival-Wednesday tour of Syzygy Tileworks
Patrick Hoskins, SyzygyG??s Showroom Manager, talks about the dark clay body that is used in making all their tiles.
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2014 Clay Festival-Wednesday tour of Syzygy Tileworks
Hoskins demonstrates how the slab roller is used to flatten the clay to tile size.
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2014 Clay Festival-Wednesday tour of Syzygy Tileworks
Hoskins describes how the tiles are cut into various shapes.
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2014 Clay Festival-Wednesday tour of Syzygy Tileworks
Plaster molds are used for making three-dimensional tiles. GǣNegativeGǥ master molds are created with plaster, a rubber GǣpositiveGǥ mold is cast from that, and then a GǣnegativeGǥ plaster mold is cast from the rubber for use in tile production.
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2014 Clay Festival-Wednesday tour of Syzygy Tileworks
Long tiles, such as those used for chair rails and moldings, are created using an extruder, which pushes clay through plates with specifically-shaped holes.
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2014 Clay Festival-Wednesday tour of Syzygy Tileworks
The only machine used in the tile production process is the de-airing pug mill, which is used to recycle clay, removing all air bubbles and returning it to the proper moisture content.
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2014 Clay Festival-Wednesday tour of Syzygy Tileworks
The nozzles attached to each tile cutter are for compressed air, which is used to release the clay tile after the tile has been stamped.
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2014 Clay Festival-Wednesday tour of Syzygy Tileworks
Tiles which have been fired in the kiln one time are called bisque ware; these are waiting to be glazed.
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2014 Clay Festival-Wednesday tour of Syzygy Tileworks
Tiles which have been fired in the kiln one time are called bisque ware; these are waiting to be glazed.
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2014 Clay Festival-Wednesday tour of Syzygy Tileworks
Glazed tiles are placed on larger trays for easier loading into the 17,000-watt kilns for firing overnight at over 2000 degrees. Syzygy has 116 glazes to choose from.
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2014 Clay Festival-Wednesday tour of Syzygy Tileworks
Syzygy has a tile and pottery exhibit on view for all visitors this week.
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