Does anyone know, or have come in contact with Barry Brand....? His profession is a tiler, obviously Expat (been over here approx 3 years) Mate of ours from the U.K. Lost touch when he came over here.....we think that he is in southern spain, and we would love to get intouch with him.... Please if anyone has come into contact with him, or knows of him, then please let us know.........
Contact through the forum........
Thanks in advance.......


Modfan

I wish you all the best in looking for your friend Barry. I am afraid I can not help you in that regard but what I am a little bit of and that's a tile buff I wont go too much into detail but for you history buffs who don't get out much here is a potted outline of the birth of the tile......... The latin word ‘tegula’ and its french derivative ‘tuile’ mean quite precisely a roof tile of baked clay.
The english ‘tile’ is less precise, for it can in addition
be used of any kind of earthenware slab applied to
any surface of a building.
the word ‘ceramic’ comes from the greek word ‘keramos’
meaning pottery, it is related to an old sanskrit root meaning
‘to burn’ but was primarily used to mean ‘burnt stuff’.

historically, man has desired to create living spaces
which were beautiful, durable, and user friendly.
with that in mind, ceramic tile has been made by
man for 4000 years.
beautiful tiled surfaces have been found in the oldest
pyramids, the ruins of babylon, and ancient ruins of
greek cities.
decorative tilework was invented in the near east,
where it has enjoyed a longer popularity and
assumed a greater variety of design than anywhere
in the world. during the islamic period, all methods
of tile decoration were brought to perfection in persia.
in europe decorated tiles did not come into general use
outside moorish spain until the second half of the
12th century. the tile mosaics of spain and portugal,
the maiolica floor tiles of rennaisance italy,
the faiences of antwerp, the development of tile iconography
in england and in the netherlands,
and the ceramic tiles of germany are all prominent
landmarks in the history of ceramic tile.

The technique of tile and its secrets of trade were
safely guarded and orally handed from father to son
and master to student; thus rarely have designs,
patterns and details of technique been documented
and few complete treatises exist on the art of tile work
in the past. each tile was hand-formed and hand-painted,
thus each was a work of art in its own right.

Simply defined, ceramic tile is tile made of clay.
tiles were made by hand, in early days clay bricks
- made by flattening the clay and cutting pieces
into shape - were dried beneath the sun or baked.
later the only mechanical aid was a wooden mould
carved in relief, which indented a pattern on the clay
slab. the slab was dried and the impression filed
with clay, which after further drying was shaved flat.
after the formation of the tile body,
ceramic tiles go through a firing process in a kiln
under very high heat to harden the tile body and
to create the surface glaze.
historically, unglazed tile was fired once.
glazed tile was fired twice.
the first firing formed a tile body called a ‘bisque’.
the biscuit firing had the highest temperature at
1060 C that fixed the tiles for size and shape.
after glazing the tiles were glost fired at about 1020
- 1240 C. on glaze decoration was fired at 750 C,
just before the glaze began to melt.
the modern tile industry was advanced by reviving
the lost art of encaustic tile-making. the industry was
further revolutionized in the 1840s by the ‘dust-pressing’
method which consisted of compressing nearly dry clay
between two metal dies. dust-pressing replaced
tile-making by hand with wet clay, and facilitated
mechanization of the tile-making industry.
So there you have it....."Ay-Thang-Yew"

Thanks for the info.......


Still looking for Barry Brand.....anyone with any info....Please get intouch...
Modfan

Try Facebook or something similar as I don`t think you stand a lot of chance on here.
Or the adverts for tilers in the local papers.

Thank You for the info....
only I think there maybe a chance of someone seeing this that knows him........he was a tiler in the UK, and I know that he started tiling over here 3 years ago, and he has moved around a bit....Anyway I will try your suggestion.............

Modfan

Too many people working for 50€ a day, so he has probably gone back to money.

Hi.....
You could be right, but we have reason to believe that he is still in Spain....Costas or near there....
Will keep trying for a while......
Thanks for your reply..

Modfan

How about putting an advert in the various expat newspapers.if he's still there,there's a good chance he probably reads at least one!

Thank You, thats a good suggestion....
We will keep asking on here for a while also, as he is more likely to be over here (Somewhere) than go back to England.... thanks for the info..............

Modfan

Hi Again.......
Maybe someone can help with this..........Barry was last seen living and working in the Torrevieja area of Spain.............(2007) Late last year.

Modfan

He also gos under the name of Bazza.......

modfan

Wife finds Bazza at last

Thanks but your comments are NOT helping...............



Modfan

But every Barry I know is also called Baz or Bazza as a nickname.

Maybe.............


This one is/was called..Bazza or( barry Ba lamb,) he would know if he read this that it was someone who knows him..........He also done Donald Duck impressions and his company name was "Allwork Ceramics" in england...hopefully someone might see this and know him.........


Modfan