Faience

We Give life and soul to our products

Faience

We Give life and soul to our products

our vision

Faience was a reliance for S. Bernardo since the beginning of our activity. Its properties provide unique characteristics to ceramic pieces and from an early age contributed strongly to the worldwide recognition of our brand.

what is faience

It is one of the forms of white ceramic associated with more plastic clays, it has a ceramic mass less rich in kaolin than porcelain is porous, so it needs to go through a process of glazing.

The origin of its production in Portugal was documented in Lisbon in the 16th century associated with Andalusian artisans. And since that date it is one of the materials of choice for decorative ceramics in Portugal.

Faience is, in turn, a low-heat porous paste, which is waterproofed after glazing. With a greyish raw colour, which clears after cooking, it exists in some abundance in the soil. Therefore, less special, or less noble than porcelain, and less “utilitarian” than stoneware because it is lighter and more porous, the great differentiating factor of faience it’s the large number of decorations, colours and finishes that can be explored.

how it's made

At S. Bernardo, the production of fine earthenware is similar to Porcelain. Most of our pieces are produced by slip casting, pass through the finishing, drying, 1st firing, glazing, decoration and the last firing.

The main difference in the manufacturing process is in firing, with fine earthenware being a material that needs substantially lower temperatures than Porcelain to be produced.

the art of faience

the art of faience