Why Does My Zellige Tile Have Chips and Pits?
Why Does My Zellige Tile Have Chips and Pits?
You open the box. A few tiles have small chips at the edge. Some have tiny pits in the glaze. First reaction: is this defective?
Almost always, no. Here's what's actually going on.
Zellige Is Cut, Not Molded
Every zellige tile starts as a hand-glazed clay slab, hand-chipped into shape with a tool called an manqash. That process doesn't produce laser-straight edges. Small edge chips — usually a millimeter or two — are a byproduct of hand-cutting, not a flaw in the tile itself.
Pits Come From the Glaze, Not the Clay
Surface pits happen during firing. Zellige is glazed and kiln-fired using traditional methods, and small air bubbles or glaze pooling can leave tiny pits or dimples in the surface. This is part of what gives zellige its light-catching, uneven glow — a perfectly smooth glaze would look flat and machine-made.
What's Normal
- Small edge chips (1-2mm) on some tiles in a batch
- Minor pinholing or pitting in the glaze surface
- Slight color and texture variation tile to tile
- Faint tool marks from hand-shaping
What's Not Normal
- Cracks running through the tile body
- Chips large enough to expose significant raw clay
- Glaze flaking or peeling off in sheets
- Tiles that are structurally broken in half
If you're seeing the second list, that's a legitimate quality issue — reach out and we'll sort it out.
Why We Don't Sort These Out Before Shipping
Some sellers hand-pick "perfect" tiles and discard the rest — which either inflates cost or means you're not getting representative handmade tile. We ship what real batches look like: the vast majority clean, a normal percentage with minor character marks, because that's genuinely what handmade zellige is. Order slightly over (see our overage guide) and use the most uniform tiles in the most visible spots — a trick installers have used for centuries.
Bottom Line
Small chips and pits aren't a manufacturing failure. They're the fingerprint of a tile made by hand instead of a machine. If that's not the look you want, zellige may not be the right material — but if you chose zellige for its handmade character, this is that character showing up exactly as it should.
Gemini image prompts (wide-angle photography style):
- Wide-angle shot of hand holding a single warm white zellige tile close to camera, natural light highlighting a small edge chip and surface pitting in the glaze, neutral workshop background
- Wide-angle photo of an open shipping box of zellige tiles on a kitchen counter, several tiles visible showing natural texture and minor edge variation, morning light
- Wide-angle close-up of a finished zellige backsplash wall, camera angle catching light across the glaze surface to show natural pitting and shine variation across multiple tiles