}
Faience worker's tools
The Egyptians began making faience at least 5,000 years ago. They called it tjehenet, meaning shining. Faience was linked with the sun through its brilliance, and with rebirth through its green colour.
The main ingredient was silica, or powdered sand, with lime, an alkali such as natron, and copper for colour. Faience workers possibly used a by-product of the masons’ workshops – sawing stone with copper tools and a sand abrasive produced a lot of powdered sand with copper in it.
Small conical supports separated faience bowls and pots in the kiln, as they would fuse together if they touched.