Hand-Pour Your Own Athangudi Tile in Chettinad

Floors for Merchant Mansions

When the Nattukottai Chettiars built their great mansions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, they imported floor tiles from Europe and Southeast Asia. Craftsmen in Athangudi, a small village near Karaikudi, worked out how to make equally beautiful tiles from local materials — and Athangudi tiles became the floors of Chettinad. Many households in the village still work in the trade, and Ilangovan Periyasamy's family yard is stacked with tiles drying in the shade.

Glass, Stencil, Colour

Ilangovan begins with the tools: a sheet of glass that gives the tile its natural gloss, a square metal frame, and a brass stencil whose thin partitions hold the pattern. The colour layer is white cement mixed with oxide pigments in the classic Chettinad palette — red, mustard yellow, green, grey and blue — stirred with water to just the right consistency.

Pouring Your Tile

You choose a pattern and pour each colour into its compartment with a small cup, then lift the stencil away in one steady movement — the moment every apprentice learns to respect. A dusting of dry cement and sand soaks up the excess water, a backing of sand and cement is packed in and pressed, and the frame is lifted off. There is no kiln and no electricity anywhere in the process.

Curing and Care

The tiles rest for a day, are cured in water tanks and then dried in the shade over the following weeks; their gloss deepens with use and gentle mopping. The tile you pour is cured in the yard and couriered to you afterwards, and you take home a finished tile on the day. The makers' association has applied for a GI tag, and tiles can be ordered at village prices.