eakinclayworks Posted January 6, 2011 Report Share Posted January 6, 2011 A student of a fellow faculty member at a local arts center was recently introduced to Egyptian Paste for making small beads and other objects. She liked it so well that she wanted to know if the formula could be modified to make the paste suitable for throwing. Does anyone know if this has been done or if there is such a formula? Alice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Britt Posted January 11, 2011 Report Share Posted January 11, 2011 A student of a fellow faculty member at a local arts center was recently introduced to Egyptian Paste for making small beads and other objects. She liked it so well that she wanted to know if the formula could be modified to make the paste suitable for throwing. Does anyone know if this has been done or if there is such a formula? Alice The problem with Egyptian paste is that there is not much clay (so it is low in plasticity- can't throw it) and it has a bunch of oxides in it like cobalt or copper and a lot of soda ash/soda bicarbonate (can be caustic) so you don't want to have your hand in it with out gloves. You could try it with gloves and just add a bunch of ball clay (15% - 25%) or bentonite (5% - !5%) until you can throw something??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eakinclayworks Posted January 11, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2011 Thank you. I'll pass the information along to the student. Appreciate your quick response. Alice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amy Waller Posted January 15, 2011 Report Share Posted January 15, 2011 In case this isn't too late to be helpful: I've been reading about attempts to replicate ancient Egyptian paste (aka Egyptian faience) recipes. The earliest versions of Egyptian paste apparently didn't have any clay at all; it wasn't until the Roman period of Egyptian history that clay was added and the wheel was possibly used. (There has been debate about whether they actually used Egyptian paste on the wheel; to my knowledge this hasn't been decisively determined.) One text states the following: "Lab experiments have shown that a 10% calcareous clay addition will give sufficient plasticity for throwing, even when used by the relatively inexperienced." (Vandiver, 1998; this is discussed -- and the full reference is given -- in this article here.) I haven't tried it so I can't vouch for the accuracy of that statement. Good luck to the student trying this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eakinclayworks Posted January 18, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2011 Thanks for the information, which I'll pass along to the instructor. Regards, Alice Eakin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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