Processing clay in Thanh Hà village: Slicing clay at the workshop 1/2

A pile of processed clay (at the back) has been brought to the workshop some time ago and covered with plastic sheet to prevent it from drying. Right before using it, the clay has to be re-processed. Nguyễn Thị Thủy has taken some clay from that pile to make a second one. It can be seen that the bottom of the new pile as already been smashed into pieces and stepped. She is now cutting a newly added chunk of clay into fine messy slices with the tool, called "nê". After that, she will step heavily on the clay to compress it and smooth it out. The whole process will be repeated a second time to ensure it is smooth enough to worked with. The sharpe edges of the pile in the background are created by the "nê", when the potter cuts off parts to add to the newpile