Earthenware — Object made of ordinary clay then fired at about 1000 Celsius. Earthenware remains porous.
EFFLORESCENCE — Whitish deposit from salts that can surface on porous tile and grout. This can happen to any cement-based product and can be removed with the special treatment.
Egyptian faience — Non-clay based ceramic composed of crushed quartz or sand, with small amounts of calcite lime and a mixture of alkalis. Used for making small glazed objects and tiles, it is called 'Egyptian faience' to distinguish it from tin-glazed ware and glazed architectural ceramics.
Emaux ombrants — From the French for 'shadow enamels'. A decorative process in which a tile with relief decorations is covered with a translucent glaze. Pooling of the glaze in the hollows produces gradations of light and dark of great delicacy.
EMBLEMA / Emblemata — Literally `(something) inserted', in Roman mosaic, the decorative panel with figure representations - people, animals, and other objects - inserted into larger areas such as floors or wails.
EML — Expanded metal lath applied to a cement “sandwich” when casting slabs.
Enamel — A ceramic pigment which can be painted on to a glazed tile and permanently fixed to it by low-temperature firing in a muffle kiln.
Encaustic — A ceramic tile where the design is inlaid in coloured clays into the main body of the tile.
EXPANSION / MOVEMENT JOINT — Gap in the tile or stone surface to absorb the movement in the floor or wall from background shrinkage or expansion, thus preventing tiles from cracking. The requirements to movement joints are laid out by British Standards (BSI) 5385.
EXTRUDED TILES — Extruded tile is pressed through a specially-shaped orifice to achieve the desired final shape, see PRESSED TILES.
