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A long time ago even before the birth of Christ, the early Egyptians began an art which is still practicing today, the decorating of Glassware and Ceramics. Many of the oldest historical artifacts are ceramics products, which have lasted thousands of years.

The same components used to make ceramics and glassware is used in making the colors themselves, These components (frits) are then mixed with compounds known to man for thousands of years, like the color blue is made with Cobalt, Green is made from Chromium Oxide. Over time new colors have been added. The combination of the compounds and a Frit are then mixed with oil so they can be applied to a product. Unlike colors used in paintings almost all ceramic colors can*t be mixed because they are made with unstable compounds.

After the items are printed onto the ceramics or glass, they are then Fired, Firing is when a product is baked at high temperatures, the color and the glaze fuse together and the imprint of the ceramics and glass becomes permanent when the product reaches 1400F for Ceramics. Before kilns were invented to the fire the products, large holes were dug into the ground and a fire was lit to bring the ceramics to such high temperatures.
The Japanese Jomon culture's pottery -- first onset of vessels found ( coiled ceramics) dates back 10,000 years. In south China, painted pottery began showing up around 8,000 B.C. The Chinese ceramic INDUSTRY dates back about 1,700 years alone. About 7,000 years ago, there's evidence of ceramics in the Americas were decorated.

Today the ceramics industry is a multi billion dollar industry, with many advancement. when decorating ceramics began there were only limited amounts of colors, today there have been many advancements in technology which have led to the creation of many new colors.