CRAFT STORY | EUROPE | UK | CERAMICS
The Revival of Tube Lining
Discover the creative revival of a storied decorative technique in Stoke-on-Trent: behind Balineum’s tiles is a story of intuition, persistence, and passion. In 2007, after struggling to find beautifully made products for her bathroom, Sarah Watson started her own company, drawing inspiration for its name from the Latin word for bathhouse. She later acquired Phoenix Tile Studio in Stoke-on-Trent, one of only three remaining tile factories in the city.
The first collection of hand-made tiles, named Hanley, saw the light in 2013. Decorated tiles had been in Sarah’s mind since the beginning, but she could hardly have imagined that, within a decade, they would become what Balineum is internationally known for—or that they would spark a lasting commitment to preserving the endangered craft of tile-making in England. The opportunity to write a new chapter in the story of her company, and to contribute to the future of this ancient craft, came in 2023.
That year, Sarah acquired Phoenix Tile Studio in Stoke-on-Trent from its founders, Paul Gibson and Geoff Shaw, who were preparing to retire. She had worked with Phoenix for years, relying on the studio for both the production and decoration of Balineum’s tiles, so the step felt natural. But there was more to it than continuity.
Once the beating heart of the British ceramics industry, Stoke-on-Trent has suffered a sharp economic decline since the 1980s, with many local firms closing or scaling back. Today, Phoenix is one of only three remaining tile factories in the city, and possibly the only one still producing extruded, hand-cut tiles on any significant scale. Keeping it alive meant safeguarding jobs and ensuring that expertise could be passed on to the next generation, especially for a decorative technique that Phoenix is the last to practise in the country: tube lining.
Invented in the 19th century, tube lining rose to popularity during the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau movements, when it was widely used to decorate fireplace panels and the interiors of pubs, pie shops, and butcher’s counters. The process is meticulous and takes at least two weeks to complete. It begins with screen-printing a design onto plain tiles using vegetable-based inks. A raised outline is then applied by hand using liquid clay, known as ‘slip’—a bit like piping icing onto a cake. Once dry, the outline is fired to harden, creating ridges that hold the coloured glazes.
Even before the acquisition, Sarah had been working with Phoenix’s decoration team to push this process beyond its familiar repertoire of floral motifs, looking to African textiles and Etruscan decoration to inspire more contemporary patterns. She also developed collaborations with artists and interior designers, inviting them to imagine how their ideas might take shape in tile through the tube lining technique.
One such collaboration, with French artist Louis Barthélemy, has led to two collections, including the recently launched Egyptomania. Dividing his time between Marrakech, Cairo and Paris, Louis brought the magic of these places into a playful, richly imagined take on ancient Egypt. His designs for Balineum conjure a cast of characters that feel both mythic and modern: acrobatic dancers and singers fresh from a party in King Tut’s palace; lions and antelopes stretching among papyrus and lotus flowers; bodybuilders in pharaonic dress lifting contemporary barbells beside sarcophagi. It’s a world where ancient iconography meets a touch of irreverence, and where tile becomes the perfect medium—equally suited to a discreet border or a joyful, ‘tapestry-like’ arrangement.
Another collection, Fearless Eyes, is inspired by interior designer Jean-Philippe Demeyer’s trove of eye talismans. This series of fifteen tiles transforms these lucky charms into colourful decorative motifs. As with Egyptomania, the possibilities for arrangement and reinvention are virtually endless.
For Sarah, the revival of tube lining is not only about preserving a storied technique, but also about keeping a spirit of creativity alive. While Balineum remains at the heart of Phoenix’s work, the studio continues to collaborate with other makers and designers, each project reinforcing Sarah’s idea that the future of tile-making in the Midlands lies in shared knowledge, new ideas, and skills passed from hand to hand. What began as a search for beautiful bathroom products has quietly become something more: a lasting commitment to the art of making, and to those who will carry it forward.
Words by Marco Mansi
Images from Gareth Hacker
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