Egyptian Paste Ceramics

The egyptians used a paste body that contained little to no clay which made for a very stiff body that was best suited for carving and press molding.

Egyptian paste ceramics. Egyptian paste or egyptian faience is a low fire mixture of ceramic materials containing clay sand colorants frits and soluble salts. Nile clay is the result of eroded material in the ethiopian mountains which was transported into egypt by the nile. Egyptian paste the principle of a self glazing clay originated in ancient egypt and now walker ceramics brings it to you in the form of egyptian paste product code ba335. Egyptian paste is ba sically a self glazing low clay modeling material.

The art of covering pottery with enamel was invented by the egyptians at a very early date. Egypt produced several varieties of unglazed pottery. Egyptian paste was developed in ancient egypt between 2686 2181 bc a period during which jewelers used casting and for this reason ceramic glazing is closely linked to the metallurgy of copper and bronze. I really enjoyed working with egyptian paste from start to finish and when i make more i think i ll go with the second recipe and stick to 3 gm copper carbonate.

It has a high silica and high soluble alkaline flux component and an abnormally low clay content. The most common pottery was the ordinary red cream colored and the yellow ones. Metal oxides in the paste color the glaze. Salts in the wet paste come to the surface as it dries and develop a glaze when it is fired in the kiln.

There is no link or relationship with faience. If i want to make beads i ll have to get the stilts with metal points for firing. These salts effervesce to the surface along with water as the paste slowly dries forming crystals which create a self glazing clay glaze hybrid once fired. This is called efflorescence glazing.

Specialists in ancient egyptian pottery draw a fundamental distinction between ceramics made of nile clay and those made of marl clay based on chemical and mineralogical composition and ceramic properties. Egyptian paste has unusual properties that permit the salts to leach to the surface of the clay during drying and firing stages. They applied it to stone as well as to pottery. Carved from egyptian paste a self glazing ceramic body was first developed prior to 5 000 bce.

Invented by the egyptians some 7 000 years ago egyptian paste is a body containing little or no clay which can be modeled carved into simple forms or pressed into molds. Egyptian faience is a non clay based ceramic composed of crushed quartz or sand with small amounts of calcite lime and a mixture of alkalis displaying surface vitrification due to the soda lime silica glaze often containing copper pigments to create a bright blue green luster.