Yellow Brick Slips

What Makes a Brick Slip Yellow?

In terms of brick slips, a simple answer is that the bricks that these slips are cut from are yellow in their base colour, meaning the faces we cut off to use as tiles are the same.

Primarily the way bricks come to be yellow is based on the mineral composition of the base clay used. Yellow bricks come from clay with a low content of, or indeed no, iron oxide, meaning the redness you may associate with brick does not develop. The clay used for yellow bricks will have calcium and magnesium compounds which brings the yellow colouring naturally, these minerals can be added artificially too prior to firing.

The other aspect is the firing temperature of the bricks- neutral light colours are much better produced by slightly lower temperatures- around 1,000 degrees Celsius as opposed to 1,500 degrees Celsius for example will produce a much lighter product.

As we've come to understand more about firing bricks across the last century, we are able to manipulate the mineral content, firing length and temperature to get specific outcomes in colour, pattern and texture. However, brick is still crafted from natural clay so natural variation is always present.

How Are They Made?

Our range of yellow brick slips are cut from full bricks. This means that a 'stock brick' i.e one pushed into a cuboid mould will have the character, specifically creasing and imperfect cuboid shape, created by that amount of clay being pressed. Once the brick is fired we can then cut each side off the brick to create 2 brick slips.

Our reclaimed collection has extra processes applied after the brick is made (but before cutting). They go through a tumbling process (like a big cement mixer) to not only misshape the bricks, but with application of slurries for some blends to create a more weathered look. After this process they can then be cut into the brick slips.

How Are They Different From Each Other?

The temperature of firing, oxygen levels, length of firing and type/quantity of minerals present mean that there is a variation in colour between each blend, and the slips within each blend too. Each brick type is made to satisfy a different colour palette.

 Our blend 9 even has painted black and white variations across the blend. This is done prior to the tumbling process to make it more authentically aged.

Things To Be Aware of With Yellow Brick Slips

Yellow brick slips are a beautiful way to give a vibrant, light and characterful appearance to your project. It's important to understand the balance in some of our blends.

The variation is often more subtle across the base that other colours of brick slip.

It's also important to note that when wet they will appear much darker, and can appear more monotone as salts won't show, which create the lighter shades.

With such a light colour the mortar makes a much larger impact than on darker shades.

See below the effect that the different mortar colours can have on our yellow brick slips.