Making a cooking pot in Ki’Nonh village : Roughing out and reforming on wet clay (partial process)

Potter Bling Thị Thuáh is making a cooking pot. She has formed a cyliner of clay and started opening it using her right index knuckle to dig up the cylinder and draw up the walls, using her left hand as support on the outside, while turning around the pot. She repeats this operation until the cylinder is completely hollow. Once she has shaped a regular hollow cylinder, the potter takes a wet stick made out of sugar cane and, still turning around the pot, presses it on the upper part on the inside and outside. This action not only regularises the thickness of the walls but the pressure also rounds the belly of the pot (from the inside) and narrows the opening (from the outside). Then, she uses again her knuckles to round up the belly of the pot. She also uses that stick to smooth the outside on the lower part of the pot. Because it is her 3rd pot, the potter is getting tired. She takes regular breaks to rest. A the same time, Hốih Tiến, Hà Thị Sương and Zơrâm Thị Nga are preparing another rough out, for a larger pot. To help the potter, they already open the lump of clay. However, as they do not have the technique, they try using a pestle to create the hole inside the cylinder of clay.