ancient egyption pottery :: essays research papers

Ancient Egyptian claywareI chose to do my research paper on Egyptian clayware because in my art appreciation class I was most intrigue with the ancient Egyptian era. I found this website that explained all about how clayware they made helped them function in everyday use. It also told me a deal out about how the made everything.The need to store things led to the development of containers, head start among them bags of fiber or leather, woven baskets and pottery. But clay lends itself to many otherwise purposes bricks, statuettes, funerary offerings, toys and games etc. Pottery, the molding of form out of a uncrystallised mass and its becoming imperishable through firing, is the most miraculous smorgasbord of creation. The exquisite artifacts made of gold, carved out of hard stone or formed from glass might make us forget that the Egyptians lived with clay and not the expensive alternatives found in royal tombs. They lived in it, drank from it, cooked in it, ate on it, car ried liquids in it, played with it, and when they died, the only offerings of any permanency most could afford were made from it. Most of the pottery manufactu florid in Egypt was made of reddish brown clay, which is called Nile silt ware. It served everyday purposes and was often go away undecorated. The red color of the fired product was the result of iron compounds oxidizing. The oldest pottery technique consisted in hollowing out a lump of clay by hand and pinching it to give it the final form. Later a flat peter was used to press the clay against the other hand. The ancient Egyptians used a number of techniques to improve the look of their pottery. Decorations were incised, painted or stuck on and colour coloring was the result of exposing the vessels to smoke. Slip, an often pigmented mixture of water and clay of the organic structure of cream, was applied to smooth the surface and color the earthenware. Wash, a mixture of pigment, much(prenominal) as red ochre, and wate r changed or intensified the color of the pottery. Glazing began during the quaternate millennium BCE, mostly blue mezzomaiolica, lead based glazing, until Roman times, when truthful tin-based faience began to appear. An example of the blue glaze is on the statue of a monkey to the right.The red wares were made without a potters wheel like all pre-dynastic pottery. After heavy(a) them their form, which was sometimes unconventional, they were dried in the sun, sometimes covered with red ochre, and polish with a stone.