Pre-firing pots in Phù Mỹ village, second phase

After a first phase of pre-firing aimed at hardenning the pots inside the kiln, more pots have been added to reach a height of 1m20 higher than the walls of the kiln. Those pots have been secured by stones and metallic sheets placed on the wall of the kiln all around the pots and attached with metallic wires, creating the third level of the kiln. The whole has been covered with metallic sheet to keep the heat inside. The kiln is going to be fired for 1 hour and 30 minuts, for the second phase of the pre-firing. This will dry the pots completely and make them 'hard' so that they will not break during the firing. It is called cứng in Vietnamese, which means 'hard, tough, rigid'. We can see that baskets of unfired pots are still placed all around the kiln. They will dry next to the fire and will be added to the kiln on the next morning.