While statements "hand made," "hand crafted" or "hand painted" were true during the old days, now days vast majority of Mexican Talavera Tiles are printed. Most importantly Talavera term is used to identify type of clay or rather mixture of clays. Some sellers suggest that Talavera is a painting technique but in reality it dosen't matter whether the tiles were hand brash painted or printed they are Talavera because of the clay used to make them. In most cases raw tiles and the printing is done by two different companies where all tiles are packed in cartons and sold cheap without assessing their quality. Only handful of factories make raw tiles as well as finish them and only those firms incorporate in the production process quality control but sell their output at the higher price. The printing is done by moving paint with a trowel over especially cut film placed on the tile and there are as many differently cut films as colors in the pattern. Since the printed image quality depends on accuracy of the films the quality of the same pattern varies from company to company. At the end of the production process the tiles are fired in industrial ovens so the high temperature bakes the paint and makes it shinning (tiles are not glazed). If the raw tiles were poorly made air bubbles will show up on the surface as small holes in the paint. Even though modern Mexican Talavera Tiles are not entirely hand made if all variables impacting the quality are under reasonable control the tiles will appear equally beautiful regardless they were made using traditional or "modern" production techniques. Since we carry both hand painted and printed tiles in our store any tiles described as hand painted, hand crafted or hand made are truly brush hand painted and priced accordingly.