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Ancient Egyptian Faience

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Faience: The First Man-made Material

Over a thousand years before glass was first created, people in the Nile River valley created a beautiful material called faience. Faience is a special type of ceramic with a tin-based glaze. Faience pieces are recognizable due to their turquoise color.

The ancient Egyptians made many objects out of faience. Most common were beads, many of which were in the shape of long tubes and assembled into nets which wrapped around mummies. Figures of human beings made of faience called ushabtis were placed in tombs of not only pharaohs, but also of common folk. Ushabti figures assisted the dead in the afterlife.

Amulets were also made of faience. This includes scarabs, but also wedjat eyes and other magical symbols. 

Efflorescence - Faience is Self-Glazing

Glaze materials are mixed into the material at the start of the process

The earliest technique of making faience objects uses the process of efflorescence. This process involves mixing the glaze materials in with the rest of the ingredients. As the molded object dries, the glaze materials move to the surface of the object.

When the object is fired in a kiln, the glaze materials undergo a chemical change which brings out the blue color.

How Faience Objects are Made

Faience is like a ceramic, but may not actually include clay!

Faience starts as a mixture of several powders. The higher quality of the raw ingredients, the higher quality of the resulting piece. Quartz pebbles were ground to a powder. Other ingredients included copper oxide, for the blue-green coloring, powdered limestone, and alkalai salts.

Water was added to the powder mixture to form a paste, and then this paste was pressed into molds.



After being taken out of the mold and allowed to dry, the salts effluoresced, moving some of the chemicals to the surface of the pieces. This formed the glaze, which would turn blue or green upon firing.

Books about Faience

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Faience Beads

Bead making and beadwork are ancient arts

The first beads were of wood, shell, clay, stone, and bone. Faience beads are a type of ceramic, but with a blue glaze, the first time in human history that clay and other materials were combined and kiln fired to create a totally new material.

The long tube-shaped faience beads were made by enclosing a plant stem in the ceramic material. When the clay was fired, the plant stem burned away, leaving the tube hollow for threading. Sometimes the long tubes were cut into short segments, creating a more traditional bead shape.

One particularly unique use for the long tube faience beads was the making of mummy nets, in which the tube beads were assembled into a network in which mummies were wrapped.

Beautiful Examples of Ancient Egyptian Faience Work

Two stunningly gorgeous Eye of Horus rings



Faience Scarabs

The scarab is one of the most common ancient Egyptian charms

The lowly dung beetle was venerated by the ancient Egyptians. Their mythology included the deity Khepera, a giant dung beetle who rolled the sun across the sky each day.

Scarab charms often had the name of a pharaoh inscribed on the bottom, or the name of the person the charm was intended to protect.

Modern Faience Objects

Faience objects are still made today, mostly to replicate ancient artworks

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Faience Ushabtis

Ushabtis were the servants for the dead in the afterlife

These mummy shaped figurines were placed in burial sites, often by the hundreds. It was believed that in the afterlife, the Ushabti figures would act as servants for the deceased.

Ushabti sculptures ranged from very crude, lumpy figures barely recognizable as human formed, to highly detailed figures with faces that were likely to have been recognized by the deceased family.

Not all faience is blue or blue-green, so some of the faience ushabti figures have greatly detailed colorations of many tones including buffs and reds, along with the blue and blue-green tones commonly associated with faience.

More Faience Objects

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Faience Feedback

Did you know about faience before you found this lens on it? Or have I taught you a thing or two about this amazing ancient art form?

Please leave me a note. I'd love to hear your thoughts on faience!

If you are so inclined, please also jump to the top of the page and click on the stars to rate this lens. Thanks!

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  • Reply
    iamstillaredhead Feb 2, 2012 @ 2:58 pm | delete
    i am still redhead is my name and i say this is valueable info
  • Reply
    jimmyworldstar Dec 3, 2011 @ 6:58 pm | delete
    I took a ceramic class back in my college days and we made an imitation of this material by pounding a bunch of different stones to powder and then blending it in with our clay pots. It came out beautiful!
  • Reply
    MarkUpshaw Dec 8, 2010 @ 3:27 pm | delete
    Beautiful work. I had never heard of Faience. Nice job on this lens.
  • Reply
    Greekgeek Jun 6, 2010 @ 4:31 pm | delete
    Lovely lens on a fascinating material. I have a few faience items myself from Egypt, and of course have seen it in many a museum in my antiquity geeking, but I had actually not known exactly what it was. Thank you for illuminating something I had not gotten around to looking up!

    I am featuring this lens on the Squidoo Museum! (http://www.squidoo.com/squidoo-museum)
  • Reply
    tandemonimom Mar 26, 2009 @ 9:15 pm | delete
    I had heard the word "faience" and knew it had something to do with beads. I did not know its history though - fascinating! And such beautiful objects made from it! Thanks - it's always a good day when I learn something new AND cool! 5*
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calyxa

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