The clothes we wear are made from a variety of materials. Our home is made of materials - mostly manufactured. The glass in the windows, the vinyl siding, the ceramic dinnerware, the metal silverware, and everywhere we look we see products made from materials. Most products are made from many different kinds of materials to satisfy the needs of the product. These elements, when combined, usually have electrons that are non localized and as a consequence have generic types of properties.
Metals usually are good conductors of heat and electricity.
Also, they are quite strong but malleable and tend to have a lustrous look when polished. Ceramics are generally compounds between metallic and nonmetallic elements and include such compounds as oxides, nitrides, and carbides. Typically they are insulating and resistant to high temperatures and harsh environments. They are very large molecular structures. Usually they are low density and are not stable at high temperatures.