The body of all the ceramic materials is made of clays, that has the property to form with water a plastic and tenacious material that hardens, once dehydrated and fired, keeping the given forms, except for an even remarkable shrinkage (up to more than 10%), that is considered in the moment of moulding, using moulds that are a little bigger than the finished objects. In the case of tiles, the potter shapes them inside the moulds and, if the decoration is in relief, he makes it in the same step.

The drying follows the moulding: it’s done in the open air, naturally, and it has the purpose to remove from the supports, by slow evaporation, the most of the retained water, that, during the cooking, could provoke deformations and cracks. Once the objects are hardened, they are processed with trim size.