MALTESE FISHING BOAT – LUZZU

MALTESE TRADITIONAL

TILES

Made by Vanessa Grech & Daniel Grech

MALTESE FISHING BOAT – LUZZU

A luzzu , is a traditional Maltese Fishing Boat from the Maltese islands.

The Maltese Fishing Boat dates back at least to the Phoenician times.

The boat traditional colors are yellow , red , green and blue.

Normally on each Luzzu they draw a pair of eyes.

The Luzzu is designed after what we believe the boats were made at the Phoenician

times.

Some of the Luzzi have been converted to passenger carriers for tourists although the vast majorities continue to be used as fishing bowls.

You can normally spot a rather large number of luzzi in Malta’s seaside villages, including Marsaxlokk and Marsascala on the south side of the island, or St Paul’s Bay on the north.

We find luzzu as well on the old Maltese lira.

Most Luzzijiet are constructed in wood to a design that dates back hundreds of years , a detail proven by painting dating from the 17th century which portray boats very similar in design and style to the modern luzzu.

Every five years most of the fishermen give their boats a service.

Most of the Luzzi have the eyes of Osiris or the Eye of Horus painted or carved on the bow.

Horus was one of the most important Egyptian gods, a sun-god signified as a falcon or with the head of a sell, whose right eye was the sun and whose left eye was the moon.

In 1941 the boat was still officially known as guzzo but in 1958 the vocabulary was changed to luzzo but consequently luzzu was commonly adopted everywhere in the Maltese fishing villages.

MALTESE TRADITIONAL TILES The techinique that is used in order to do these tiles, started many centuries ago, but it was introduced in Malta around 300 years ago. These tiles, are one of the main charecteristics of an old Maltese home. In order to achieve the very delicate, and beautiful look, they go trough a long process, which from the beginning till the end takes up a lot of time.

The process starts with the mixing of the colours. A blend of powdered marble, white cement, and colour pigment are the three main ingredients needed in order to create these tiles. The process starts by first placing a smooth back plate, also known as it-tampun, into the frame, il-kwadru. After the frame is secured to the back plate the form is then placed. The frame holds all the materials together while the form is used as a guide for the tile-maker to know where to put the coloured pigment.

The back plate is then lightly covered in oil. Then the tile-maker starts to fill in the form with the desired colours that the pattern requires. After the colour is poured in the form, it is then lightly taped on the side, to let any air bubbles out.

. The form is then removed and immediately the putraxx (another kind of cement) is gently sifted onto the colours. This kind of cement is dry, in order to soak up any excess water and doesn’t give time for the colours to mix together

. Then it is covered again with the milanc (also a cement) which is the complete opposite of the putraxx. This cement is damp and is used to bond all of the tile together. After the milanc has covered the whole layer of putraxx then everything is levelled and sent under a mechanical press which combines all the materials used together.

The process of these tiles has still remained the same, but with the difference that before the marble powder existed they used beach sand, and the whole tile was manually pressed. But these little changes made little difference to time it takes to make one tile

This is because the tiles are individually made and it is estimated that only around 10 tiles are made every hour. Since the start of this tradition, many other design have been introduced, but there is still many traditional designs which can be found in many of the floors of our old homes.