Back to Paste!

This little Guy on our left here was supposed to remind me to do some experimenting with Egyptian paste and report back to the world on my findings. Well for the past five years he's been as silent as an Egyptian tomb. Five years ago this blog was started with a lot of enthusiasm and then just sort of fizzled out. Surprisingly, I did have one comment in those five years; So, I know at least one somebody out in this vast universe is following my adventures in Egyptian paste. There's still a batch, maybe two on my reagent shelf of Egyptian paste that I mixed up years ago. Add a little water and elbow grease and I'm good to go. If I don't report back in a fortnight or so it's this little guy's fault and none of my own.

How can clay self-glaze? Efflorescence, that's how!

Every week I will introduce one little nuance on Egyptian paste. At this rate, we will acquire 52 characteristics of Egyptian paste in a year. Theoretically, anyone who can name 52 characteristics of Egyptian paste is somewhat of a master on the subject, no?
Moving on, efflorescence, is the term this week. I would describe it as a wicking of the salts in the Egyptian paste to the surface as it dries. The Egyptian paste has soluble salts in it; that is salts that are dissolved in water.
Here is an image of our miniature milking stool again; both before and after the firing to cone 06 (about 1000 C. degrees). It’s hard to see and photograph, but in the before picture there is a powder on the surface. The powder is like growing salt crystals. I’ll try to get a close-up photograph of the surface next time I fire a load of paste.

Working in Egyptian Paste

If Egyptian Paste is defined as self-glazing clay then this blog will consist of my adventures of trying to create with it. More than likely more pictures will be posted here rather than text, because pictures tend to be self-explanatory. It is hoped by sharing ideas, techniques and problems in working Egyptian paste with you that it will aid me in understanding this media.

I should sidebar here to say that Egyptian paste is not true clay but rather pulverized glass; it's about as pliable as wet sand. To the right is a little three-legged stool I formed (from a recipe I shall divulge further down the blog). I haven't learned how to put captions on pictures yet, but that won't stop me from enclosing them just now.
Furthermore, why the antiquities of this media are labeled Faience is beyond my comprehension. Faience is a majolica pottery made in the town Faenza, Italy. I visited that town years back and noticed that Egyptian paste looks nothing like Faience. I've read that the Egyptians themselves referred to it as "tjehnet"; a Google search on tjehnet will yield a few of the artifacts but the same search on faience will overwhelm one. In researching Egyptian paste numerous archaeological references were discovered, but little in actually working the "clay". Therefore this blog is to be the first comprehensive guide in working with Egyptian paste. Only you will be working alongside me as I discover this trail.