What is handmade variation?

At Clay Imports, we believe there is beauty in diversity and variation. Every product we offer is unique. Natural variation is an inevitable characteristic of handmade tile. As a result, expect variations in size, shade, and thickness. Our tile offerings also feature irregular edges and the appearance of fine cracks. This can vary from piece to piece. To ease the tile buying process, we established shade and texture variation categories based on the CNA Handbook. 

V1 Uniform Appearance: Differences among pieces from the same production run are minimal.

Uniform appearance doesn’t apply to any of our tiles!

V2 Slight Variation: You’ll notice clearly distinguishable differences in texture and/or pattern within similar colors.

For example this applies to:

Patterned Clay tile

Cement tile

Terrazzo tile

Hand-Painted tile

Pool Waterline tile

Solid Color Clay Tiles

V3 Moderate Variation:While the colors and/or texture present on a single piece of tile will be indicative of the colors and/or texture to be expected on the other tiles, the amount of colors and/or texture on each piece may vary significantly.

This applies to:

Saltillo tile

Cotto tile

Glazed Thin Brick (except greens and blues)

Glazed Saltillo (except greens and blues)

Zellige tile (except greens and blues)

Pavers

Washed Solid Color Clay Tiles

V4 Substantial Variation: Random color and/or texture differ from tile to tile, so that one tile may have totally different colors and/or texture from that on other tiles.

For example:

Green and Blue Glazed Saltillo

Green and Blue Zellige