Short answer: zellige (also written zellij or zillij) is a style of mosaic tilework made from individually hand-cut pieces of glazed tile, fitted together into geometric patterns. It belongs to the architecture of Morocco and the wider western Islamic world, including al-Andalus, and Fez is still its main centre of production. Tilekind does not sell zellige. What is here is five subway tiles with a wave face, all ceramic, 75 × 300 mm, 8 mm thick and gloss. None of the five product pages calls its tile zellige, and none says how the tile is made.
The two get confused because a search for zellige tiles brings back shops as well as explanations, and one of the five pages here compares its face to handmade glaze. This guide sets out what the word means, using two outside sources listed at the end, then what the five product pages here record, row by row, so you can see where the two meet and where they do not. Product facts were read from the product pages on 6 October 2026.
1. What zellige is
Wikipedia's article on the subject defines zellij, “also spelled zillij or zellige”, as “a style of mosaic tilework made from individually hand-chiseled tile pieces.” The pieces were typically of different colours and fitted together into tessellated patterns, most notably the radiating star patterns of Islamic geometric design. The same article places it in the architecture of Morocco and Algeria, at early Islamic sites in Tunisia and in the historic monuments of al-Andalus, and notes that from the 14th century it became a standard decoration along lower walls, on minarets and for paving floors.
A museum record adds the material. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London catalogues a fragment from the Alhambra in Granada as a “Fragment of tile mosaic (alicatado), made in Alhambra, Granada, Spain, about 1300-1400, tin-glazed earthenware.” Alicatado is the Spanish name for the same cut-tile mosaic technique, and tin-glazed earthenware is a fired clay body under a glaze: a ceramic, in other words.
2. How zellige is made
The making is the definition. As the Wikipedia article sets it out:
- The tiles are first made as glazed squares, “typically 10 cm per side”.
- Each square is then cut by hand with a small adze-like hammer into one of a set of established shapes, the shapes the pattern needs.
- The cut pieces are laid face down and assembled into the pattern, and their backs are coated with thin layers of plaster or whitewash, which bond them into larger panels once dry.
- After the 15th century the traditional mosaic fell out of fashion in most countries except Morocco, where it is still produced. Fez remains its most important centre of production, and the article gives the grey clay found around Fez as part of the reason it is still a centre for zellige.
So a zellige surface is a composition of many small cut shapes, each a piece of a glazed clay tile, set into a pattern. That is the sense in which the word is used in this guide.
3. When a shop uses the word
Search for zellige tiles in Australia and much of what comes back is tiles for sale. A phrase such as “zellige look” or “inspired by zellige” names an appearance a tile is after. It does not say how the tile was made, what it is made of or where.
That is the same distinction this site draws for stone. A travertine-look tile is not travertine, and the Material row settles it: Travertine or travertine look? and Slate tiles or slate look? work through two such cases. With zellige the material row does not settle it, because zellige is a ceramic too. What separates a zellige tile from another glazed ceramic tile is how it was made and what shape it is, and those are the rows to look for on any listing.
4. The five wave tiles here, row by row
All five are in Wave tiles, and each page records the same box: 44 pieces, 1 m² and 16 kg, from the supplier's current documentation.
| Tile | Colour | Size | Thickness | Finish | Profile | Material |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio Wave | White | 75 × 300 mm | 8 mm | Gloss | Wave | Ceramic |
| Studio Crest Wave | White | 75 × 300 mm | 8 mm | Gloss | Wave, including wave edge | Ceramic |
| Studio Cloud Wave | Grey | 75 × 300 mm | 8 mm | Gloss | Wave | Ceramic |
| Studio Sage Wave | Green | 75 × 300 mm | 8 mm | Gloss | Wave | Ceramic |
| Studio Ink Wave | Black | 75 × 300 mm | 8 mm | Gloss | Wave | Ceramic |
Each page's opening line says what its wave does:
- Studio Wave: “A long-format subway tile with a sculpted wave surface and a light-catching gloss finish.”
- Studio Crest Wave: “A white subway tile where both the face and the edges undulate, giving a laid wall a hand-formed line.” It is the one page whose Profile row reads “Wave, including wave edge”; on the other four it reads Wave.
- Studio Cloud Wave: “A cool pale grey subway tile with a rippled face for movement without colour.”
- Studio Sage Wave: “A pale sage subway tile with a rippled face that catches light unevenly, the way handmade glaze does.”
- Studio Ink Wave: “A black subway tile with a rippled face, so the gloss breaks into highlights rather than a flat sheet.”
Studio Sage Wave is the only tile on this site recorded as green, and Studio Ink Wave is one of two recorded as black; the other is the flat Studio Ink. Charcoal and black tiles: 5 compared sets Ink Wave beside the other dark faces.
The five wave tiles are also listed under textured tiles, beside the rough, fluted and texture-and-honed faces on this site.
5. What the five pages do not say
None of the five pages uses the word zellige, and nor does any other product page here. None records a making method: there is no row for hand-cut, handmade, pressed or anything else. And none records the clay body or where the tile was made; the Material row reads Ceramic and goes no further.
Two opening lines come close to the language of handmade tile, and both are comparisons:
- Studio Sage Wave catches light unevenly “the way handmade glaze does”. That compares how the surface looks with how a handmade glaze looks. It is not a record that the glaze is handmade.
- Studio Crest Wave gives a laid wall “a hand-formed line”. That describes the line the undulating edges make once laid. It is not a record that the tile was formed by hand.
Nothing on the pages says the five are machine-made either, so this guide does not say so. What the pages do record does not fit that definition: each of the five is sold by the box as a single, whole 75 × 300 mm rectangle with a wave profile, longer than the glazed square, typically 10 cm a side, that zellige pieces are cut from. Whatever its look, it is not zellige in the sense of sections 1 and 2.
6. Zellige and the five wave tiles, side by side
| Zellige, as the two sources describe it | The five wave tiles, as their pages record them | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A mosaic of hand-cut pieces fitted into a pattern | A subway tile: one whole rectangle |
| Shape | Many established shapes, cut from glazed squares typically 10 cm per side | One shape: 75 × 300 mm |
| How it is made | Glazed, then cut by hand with a small hammer | Not recorded |
| Material | Glazed clay; the V&A fragment is tin-glazed earthenware | Ceramic, 8 mm |
| Surface | Glazed; the pieces were typically of different colours | Gloss, with a wave profile; one colour row per tile |
| Where the word appears | The name of the technique | Nowhere on the five pages |
7. Same size, flat or wave
The wave changes what the surface does with light, not the count. All five are 75 × 300 mm, the same size as four of the six flat subway tiles here, so a square metre of any of them is 44.44 pieces and 16.7 m of joint. Subway tiles: 11 faces compared sets all eleven subway tiles side by side, and Subway tile layouts: 8 patterns shows how they can be set out. The count does not change with the face.
8. Seeing a wave face before you order
No photograph in the installed series shows a wave face: none of its nineteen posts shows or names any of the five. There is no installed example of a wave tile here, and this guide does not use a flat subway wall to stand in for one.
That leaves the sample. Every one of the five pages lists a sample piece, and every one carries the same line: “Screen images, sample pieces and production batches can vary. View a physical sample in the actual room light, then confirm the supplied batch before installation.” It matters more than usual on a wave face, because what the face does depends on where the light comes from. Hold the piece upright and tilt it, as Tile samples at home: how to compare colour, light and pairing describes, and look at it in the morning and the evening. A room preview gives a rough view of a whole wall, but a flat image does not show sheen or texture, so it cannot show the wave.
9. If it is zellige you want
We do not sell zellige. If that is what you are looking for, these questions help confirm what a listing is offering, whoever is selling it:
- Does the listing say how the tile is made: cut by hand from a glazed tile, or formed and glazed whole?
- Is it sold as cut pieces or a made-up pattern, or as whole squares or rectangles?
- What does the listing give as the material, and does it say where the tile was made?
- Does “zellige” on the listing describe the making, or only the look?
- What does the seller say about how it is to be laid and looked after? This site holds no record on either for zellige, so the answer has to come from the seller.
Questions people ask
What is zellige?
A style of mosaic tilework from Morocco and the wider western Islamic world, made from pieces cut by hand from glazed tiles and fitted together into geometric patterns. Fez is still its main centre of production. The word is also spelled zellij and zillij.
Is zellige the same as subway tile?
No. Zellige names a way of making tilework; subway names a shape, a rectangle such as 75 × 300 mm. A rectangle sold as “zellige subway” is a question for its seller: ask how it was made.
Are the wave tiles here handmade?
The pages do not say. None of the five records a making method. Studio Sage Wave's page compares its face to “handmade glaze”, and Studio Crest Wave's to “a hand-formed line”; both are descriptions of the look, not records of how the tile was made.
Is there a green or a black wave tile?
Yes, one of each. Studio Sage Wave is the only tile here recorded as green, and Studio Ink Wave is the black one. Both are 75 × 300 mm, 8 mm, gloss.
What size are the wave tiles?
All five are 75 × 300 mm and 8 mm thick, with a box of 44 pieces covering 1 m². That is 44.44 pieces and 16.7 m of joint per square metre, the same as a flat 75 × 300 mm subway tile.
Does Tilekind sell zellige?
No. No product here records zellige, and none records being cut or made by hand.
Where these facts come from
Sizes, thickness, finish, profile, colour, material, box contents, sample listings and the opening lines quoted here were read from the five product pages, and the absence of the word zellige from every product page here was checked across all sixty, on 6 October 2026; the box figures are from the supplier's current documentation. The statement that no installed photograph shows a wave face was checked against all nineteen posts in the installed series on the same date. The description of zellige comes from the Wikipedia article and the Victoria and Albert Museum record below, both read on 6 October 2026. The description of search results in section 3 is from a Google search for zellige tiles in Australia on 6 October 2026. Nothing here was measured or tested by Tilekind, and nothing here is a statement about where a particular tile belongs. What the words on a tile page mean explains the Material and Finish rows, and Where to start sets out the order the guides follow.
References:
- Wikipedia, “Zellij”, revision of 26 September 2026, read 6 October 2026: the lead and the History, Fabrication and Clays sections.
- Victoria and Albert Museum, Tile, fragment of tile mosaic (alicatado), Alhambra, Granada, about 1300–1400, museum number C.130-1938 (collections record O161480), read 6 October 2026.
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