Preforming bottom and surface treatment on leather-hard clay in Thanh Hà village 5/8

The pots have been let to dry for some time after being fashioned on the wheel. Nguyễn Thị Thủy places them back on the wheel (here, the electric wheel) to shape the bottom. On the wheel, a ring of wet clay is placed of around the same diameter than the object that will be shaped. The pots are placed upside down on it. The ring of clay is there to stick them in the right place throughout the process. Nguyễn Thị Thủy has scraped the flat bottom out, until the surface is roughly rounded using a metalic circle called vòng in her left hand. She now uses both hands on the vòng, but still keeps her middle finger at the centre of the pot, and regularises the shape from top to the mid-pot’s height. The edge of thei vòng being sharp, it really shaves the surface, taking off long strings of clay from the pots, allowing the potter to shape the bottom of the pot in a regular rounded shape.