Processing clay in Thanh Hà village: Stepping on clay in the workshop 1/3

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 and sliced it thinly. She is now stepping heavily on the clay with her heel to compress it and smooth it out. It can be seen that the bottom of the new pile as already been processed in the same. The whole process will be repeated a third time for the whole pile 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.