What is the name of the blue-green ceramic material used in ancient Egyptian jewelry?

Egyptian faience is the blue-green ceramic material used in many ancient Egyptian jewelry pieces.

Despite its name, Egyptian faience is not the same as the glazed earthenware associated with Faenza in Italy. It is a non-clay ceramic made primarily from crushed quartz or sand, combined with alkalis and small amounts of lime. A glaze, often colored with copper compounds, produced its characteristic bright blue-green surface.

The material imitated prized stones such as turquoise from Sinai and lapis lazuli imported from Afghanistan. Egyptian craftspeople used it for beads, amulets, inlays, vessels, figurines, and jewelry. Its brilliant colors also carried religious associations: blue could evoke the Nile, heavenly waters, and life, while green suggested vegetation, renewal, and rebirth.

Faience is sometimes confused with Egyptian blue, glass, or turquoise. Egyptian blue is a separate synthetic pigment, glass is fully melted during manufacture, and turquoise is a natural mineral. Faience was shaped before firing and developed its shine through surface vitrification.