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Faience, along with glass and gold, was elaborated in craft
workshops. Numerous paintings and other depictions found in
tombs in Saqqara, Beni Hasan and Thebes give testimony of
this fact. The different steps covered by artisans and goldsmiths
to produce their work can be appraised on those representations
from the preliminary steps to the delivery and weighing or
measuring of metals.
They portray scenes that begin with the weighing of metals,
melting and glass blowing, and all the way to the laminating
and hammering of gold leaf for each piece, preparing many
of the pieces to be studded with semiprecious stones made
out of faience or glass paste. Even in Ankhma tomb the workshop
is represented as a tile roof, supported by lotus flower shaped
golden columns. The name given to the workshop is “n
k3”, sometimes abbreviated “is”, but it must
have been the usual way workshops were called since it was
also used for the embalming workshops.
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