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In the work reported in this article, were determined the shielding capabilities of three artisanal bricks used massively in the construction industry in Mexico. The linear attenuation coefficients for photons between 1 keV and 100 GeV are reported; and the half-value layers for energies used in the medical field, show that the three typical artisanal bricks have good shielding capabilities for photons below 50 keV. We compared the effective atomic numbers of one of our bricks against two widely used materials in the construction industry, and our results suggest that the greater the effective atomic number, the less material attenuation capacity. A comparison of the half-value layer of one of our bricks against the half-value layers of two clay bricks with different percentages of fly ash particles published in the literature, suggests that in the region between 0.001 and 2.8 MeV, all the three bricks have practically the same attenuation capacity and that from 2.8 MeV to 100 GeV the clay bricks with different percentages of fly ash particles, need less material to show the same attenuation capacity than our artisanal bricks. Energy Dispersed X-Ray Fluorescence suggests that regardless of the number of constituent elements in a sample, a critical mass per atom is required to have a positive impact on density; and as a consequence, in the capacity of attenuation of the materials. Normalized half-value layers suggest on the other hand, that the uncooked bricks have better shielding capabilities than cooked. • We have proven that three typical artisanal bricks have better shielding capabilities than gypsum for photons below 50 keV. • A critical mass per atom in the constituent elements of a material is required to have a positive impact on density. • The combination of EDXRF and XCOM code show that uncooked bricks have a better performance as a shield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]