This practice-based research deals with an archaeological material known today as 'Egyptian faience'; it was described as 'the first high-tech ceramic' (Vandiver and Kingerey, 1987). Faience has long been overlooked and yet it played a significant role in the development of the art and science of both ceramics and glass. Faience objects were made mainly from the early fourth millennium BC until the late Roman period in the 7th century AD, though a few rare faience workshops survive today. The friable nature and the poor plasticity of the faience paste presented major challenges to craftsmen in terms of their ability to produce successful faience artefacts. Nevertheless, ancient craftsmen managed to overcome these problems and created fabulous objects of art by using and developing various making methods, that they adapted to the material. This study attempts to shed light on these manufacturing techniques, particularly through close examination of archaeological artefacts from a sculptor/ceramicist's perspective. It also considers issues of the raw materials, their preparation and their processing, as well as the technological choices and challenges faced by the faience-makers. The project combines fundamental and structured experimental work with analytical studies of the faience samples. The cross sections of the samples were studied under a scanning electron microscope, which supplied the research with significant information on the microstructure of the material and the chemistry of its glaze formation. The artwork created for this research project was informed by the research findings and was designed to explore the characteristic elements of the faience material and to investigate its potentials and its limitations in contemporary ceramic practice. The ethno-archaeological study of a surviving faience workshop in Iran, which was carried out during this research, provided a rare opportunity to explore and document the cementation method of faience production within the context of a traditional workshop. This was especially valuable in the light of our new understanding of faience technology.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:665335 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Tajeddin, Zahed |
| Publisher | University of Westminster |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/item/98936/egyptian-faience-ancient-making-methods-and-consideration-of-technical-challenges-in-sculptural-practice |
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