Egyptian Paste

Egyptian Paste/Faience - Drying

Egyptian Paste after the firing (right one has gold luster too)

About 2 years ago in my Art of Ancient Egypt class I did a research project on a Faience amulet from Ancient Egypt.  Although the project was meant to be a simple 3 page worksheet: what is it... where is it from... what is it made of... etc.  I turned in a 12 page research project, most of which consisted of 6 pages breaking down the chemical components of the material of Egyptian Faience.  Ancient Egyptian Faience is not homogenous, there are many different types including glass Faience, and a later form with the addition of more clay and sand enabling craftsman to actually throw pots with it. But this did not happen til the Greco-Roman period. The traditional forms of Faience (what we now call Egyptian paste) had very little clay content, and only about 10% fine sand to help the material hold its structure. 

It is a self-glazing material.  Despite what a lot of archaeologists and Egyptologists say, it is not glazed ceramic, a more apt description would be to simply call it glaze, all by itself.  Essentially it is an alkali based glaze.  As it dries the salt (alkali) migrates to the surface of the piece. When it fires the colorant (most often either copper carbonate or cobalt oxide) are drawn to the surface as well and flux with the alkali to create the hard outer shell.

Although we do not have the ancient recipes, there are a number of recipes available online that can duplicate it pretty well.  I got mine from Robin Hopper's book The Ceramic Spectrum.

I had seen many amulets and bowls in Egyptian Faience in my research so I made a bunch of shapes: hippos, scarabs and small press-molded bowls.  I then painted manganese dioxide on the outside of the dried pieces not exactly knowing how it would react, but it fluxed right along with the alkali and the copper.  The Egyptian paste is fired to between cone 012-08 (different recipes call for different temperatures)

On some of the pieces I added gold luster and fired again to cone 018, also as an experiment. It worked beautifully!

Egypt-Ware... It Emerges.

Jan 29, 2011 We Give Each Other Courage

The Egypt-ware has made its final journey through its 5th firing (should have been 4, but had some problems).

There are over 30 pieces, some consisting of groupings of 2 to 7 pots within each of those "pieces".  It was a long and laborious project, but worth every minute, and worth all the blood (litterally), sweat and tears that went into it.

Along with this project, I was also able to get a new and official website launched with fantastic professional photos (www.genevamillion.com).  The photos were taken by Cap Prince, who did a wonderful job, but you can see that for yourself.

The new job at hand is compiling this all into a cohesive portfolio for Graduate Schools, and hoping it's suitable and relevant enough that I'll get in (somewhere!).  As far as I'm concerned this subject is amazingly important to the world right now.  I just hope other people see it the same way...

Jan 30, 2011 Peaceful Revolution (Detail)

Feb 3, 2011 Bringing People Together

Feb 4, 2011 A Day of Departure (Detail)

Artist Statement

I have spent years devoted to the study of the ceramic craft in its historic applications. I see the use of clay as a medium as having its own symbolic meaning; the idea of creating something from nothing, the forming of a vessel of life from a mound of dirt and filling it with life.  Images and concepts seen in Ancient Egypt have been the basis for my research both academically and in my art.

My ceramic work uses historic ceramic forms, technology, and pottery representing ‘living Hieroglyphs’ to tell the stories of Egypt.  My work parallels Egypt’s Ancient Intermediate periods, or times of disunion and chaos, with their current conflicts. This comparison is done through the act of layering, and multiple firings. Each work reveals layers of history, each building on top of the other, growing from the previous, changing yet remaining inevitably the same.