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Egyptian faience (Egyptian paste) recipe



I've had some requests for the Egyptian faience (Egyptian paste) recipe I was using in the Clay Club demo last month. Here it is, from Issue 35 of Ceramics Technical, where it was included in an article by Jeff Zamek. (Full credit: I adapted this from a recipe by Patricia Griffin, which she adapted from a recipe by Joseph Noble.) The pendants shown were fired to cone 06.

Amy Waller Turquoise Egyptian Paste (Egyptian Faience)
(cone 010 to cone 04)

Flint (Silica) 325 mesh 85
Sodium bicarbonate 6
Kentucky OM #4 ball clay 5.2
Whiting 1.9
Custer feldspar 1.9
Copper oxide 1.0
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Comments

Unknown said…
Would it be possible to substitute copper carbonate for copper oxide?
November 12, 2015 at 12:50 PM
John Britt said…
Yes, 1.5% copper carb
November 12, 2015 at 1:15 PM
John Britt said…
Yes, 1.5% copper carb
November 12, 2015 at 2:02 PM
Amy Waller said…
You can take 1% copper oxide (or 1.5% copper carbonate) as a starting point. You might want more or less depending on how light or dark you want the color to be. I did a quick look at a collection of recipes for this kind of Egyptian faience (efflorescent, or self-glazing, Egyptian faience) and found a range of .5 - 6.0% copper carbonate and .7 - 3.0% copper oxide.
November 15, 2015 at 5:34 PM
Paul Wheeler said…
I tried this recipe out! I ended making really dry looking, slightly purpleish white discs... not sure if I did it right.. I'll post pics up later! http://www.sheppertonceramics.com/blog
February 9, 2016 at 9:31 AM
Paul Wheeler said…
I tried this recipe out a few days ago. I ended up with very dry, slightly purple discs.. I'll upload pictures to my blog - http://www.sheppertonceramics.com/blog
February 9, 2016 at 9:32 AM
John Britt said…
Probably under-fired. Just try refiring.
February 9, 2016 at 10:41 AM
Amy Waller said…
Some other things that can affect the glaze formation include:

• how long the pieces dried before firing and what the drying conditions were like

• the size of the pieces (generally speaking, the bigger/thicker the piece, the better the glaze formation)

• how old the paste was (that is, how long before forming the pieces the dry mixture was combined with water)

What cone were they fired to? The source for this recipe fired to cone 09 and 08; I have fired that low with acceptable results. The pendants shown in the photo were fired to cone 06. (I'm not sure where the range of cone 010 to cone 04 came from - that was included in Ceramics Technical but was not provided by me.)

Hope that helps! And thanks for sharing - look forward to the photos on your blog.
February 9, 2016 at 5:39 PM
Deb W said…
We'll be trying this recipe with three middle school girls this week for their project on Egyptian amulets. At the advice of our local ceramics supply store, we've substituted cobalt stain for the copper for safety. I'll let you know how it works out. Thank you for the recipe and video, it's been very helpful as we've researched this.
February 6, 2017 at 12:13 PM
Amy Waller said…
Thanks, Deb! Would love to know how it works out.
February 20, 2017 at 8:48 AM
Jenn said…
Is there a way to do make the faience from home using a stove? I'd like to try and make it but don't understand all these ratios either. Many thanks!
October 13, 2017 at 3:46 PM
Amy Waller said…
Hi Jenn - a stove doesn’t get hot enough to fire faience. Even if it could get hot enough, I wouldn’t recommend firing faience (or any kind of ceramic) in a stove that is also used to prepare food.

As for the ratios - if you’re talking about the numbers in the recipe (for example, silica 85, sodium bicarbonate 6, etc.), they refer to parts, or percentages, that add up to 100. Any unit of measure can be used for weighing ingredients - grams, ounces, etc. - as long as the same unit of measure is used for all of the ingredients.

So for a 100 gram batch (a good place to start for a first time test batch), each of those numbers would refer to grams:

Flint (Silica) 325 mesh: 85 grams
Sodium bicarbonate: 6 grams
Kentucky OM #4 ball clay: 5.2 grams
Whiting: 1.9 grams
Custer feldspar: 1.9 grams

Total: 100 grams

(The colorant - copper oxide - isn’t included in the base recipe, but would be added with the same unit of measure, so 1 gram of copper oxide in this case.)

Hope that helps!
October 13, 2017 at 10:18 PM
Unknown said…
Is there any way to alter this recipe to create a cone 6 version?
October 12, 2018 at 12:22 AM
Amy Waller said…
It would probably be easier to use a self-glazing recipe designed for cone 6. Gerald Rowan included two cone 6 recipes in a 1990 Ceramics Monthly article about self-glazing clay bodies. If you don’t have access to that and would like to see it, send me an email (amy@amywallerpottery.com) and I can share it.
October 12, 2018 at 7:59 AM
Unknown said…
Is there any way to alter this recipe to create a cone 6 version?
October 12, 2018 at 1:57 PM
Amy Waller said…
Egyptian faience/Egyptian paste is really a low fire ceramic. Did you see my reply above about using a cone 6 self-glazing clay body recipe?
October 13, 2018 at 8:58 AM
Anonymous said…
Amy, is there a book or two or resource that you could recommend for history/background on faience?
November 15, 2018 at 4:54 AM
Anonymous said…
Whoops. Never mind....found your website and all of the excellent readings! Thank you in advance.
November 15, 2018 at 5:17 AM
Unknown said…
Out of curiosity, do you think that a silicone mold would be resistant enough to sodium absorption to be used for molding faience or is bisqueware molding/stamping the best way to go?
January 30, 2020 at 5:40 PM
Amy Waller said…
I don't think a silicone mold would absorb sodium so much, but a bisqueware mold is easier to deal with. The paste has a tendency to slump and the drying effect of bisqueware can help prevent or reduce that. How much water has been added to the paste will make a difference: the wetter the paste, the more its tendency to slump. The size and stiffness of the mold will also make a difference. A silicone stamp might be easier to use than a mold, depending on how detailed it is. A release (like an oil) might help with releasing. You do want to work fast at this stage so that the piece can get into the open air to allow the sodium to work its way to the surface and form the glaze layer.
January 31, 2020 at 8:43 AM
Unknown said…
Hi Amy! I have been trying this recipe but unfortunately, where I live it is a little hard to find the specific clay you suggest, so im just working with whatever clay I can use here (im using a white clay for ceramic, no specifics). I just wanted to ask you if the consistency of your paste is kind of sandy, or more like clay (plastic), mine is very sandy and hard to work with since it crumbles quite easy... (how may I fix this? is it normal?)
March 4, 2021 at 3:20 PM
Amy Waller said…
I'm not sure how much the clay type might be contributing to the consistency. I find that the amount of water added to the dry mixture can make the most difference. The paste can go from dry and crumbly to almost liquid-y with just a small addition of water. If it gets too wet, I add a little more dry mixture to firm it up to my desired consistency. I add water and/or dry mixture as needed while working with the paste to keep the consistency that I want.
March 5, 2021 at 1:08 PM
MLeigh said…
Hello Amy,
Where can I find these ingredient, like the copper oxide, whiting, Custer feldspar etc? Sorry if it’s a dumb question, I normally work with glass. Also are the numbers measurements? Ounces? Thankyou so much.
August 28, 2021 at 5:03 PM
Amy Waller said…
You can find the ingredients at ceramic supply stores. Not sure where you're located, but the Ceramic Arts 2021 Yearbook and Annual Buyers Guide has a list of suppliers by location; you can download it for free here: https://ceramicartsnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/cay-2021-online.pdf (look for "raw materials" suppliers in the "buyers guide geographic locator" starting on page 54)

The numbers are indeed measurements. Cribbing from a reply above, the numbers in the recipe refer to parts, or percentages, that add up to 100. Any unit of measure can be used for weighing ingredients - grams, ounces, etc. - as long as the same unit of measure is used for all of the ingredients.

So for a 100 gram batch (a good place to start for a first time test batch), each of those numbers would refer to grams:

Flint (Silica) 325 mesh: 85 grams
Sodium bicarbonate: 6 grams
Kentucky OM #4 ball clay: 5.2 grams
Whiting: 1.9 grams
Custer feldspar: 1.9 grams

Total: 100 grams

(The colorant - copper oxide - isn’t included in the base recipe, but would be added with the same unit of measure, so 1 gram of copper oxide in this case.)
August 30, 2021 at 8:17 AM
JohnC said…
The ancient peoples did not have electric or gas fired kilns. How did they get their ovens hot enough to make fire the clay?
October 20, 2022 at 10:16 PM
Loretta Angelica said…
(Hi Amy,
I apologize for the multiple comments.
I made a few attempts to post variations of this comment but I wasn’t signed into my gmail account��‍♀️
Not sure if this one is succinct, but please disregard the others because this one has more links.

Hi JohnC,
Yes, how fortunate we are to live in these times! Through the culmination of thousands of years of our ancestor’s developments, we now have the luxury of firing our ceramic works in gas and electric powered kilns.������

It’s fascinating how ancient civilizations and most indigenous peoples just 1)experimented with what was available from the Earth and their natural surroundings and then 2) figured out, through trial & error, how to successfully fire their clay.

I hope the following links will offer some help:

https://wheelandclay.com/blog/egyptian-pottery/#t-1674604800030

https://egyptmanchester.wordpress.com/2012/05/27/curators-diary-26512-making-ancient-egyptian-faience/

https://www.colorado.edu/classics/2018/06/15/production-pottery

http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/pottery.htm

https://wheelandclay.com/blog/ancient-pottery-cultures/


Wishing you much success on your artistic journey,
Loretta


Sent from my iPhone
January 26, 2023 at 1:02 AM
BPilla said…
What degrees would you recommend for firing?
March 28, 2024 at 7:02 PM
John Britt said…
Not sure if she is following this, but I think it says in the text...cone 05?
March 28, 2024 at 8:37 PM
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