Making a small cooking pot in Ki’Nonh village : Roughing out and reforming on wet clay

Potter Bling Thị Thuáh is making a small cooking pot. She has formed a cyliner of clay that she places on a large leaf on the floor. She inserts her right index knuckle in the middle of the lump. While turning around the lump, bended over it, she makes regular moves from the centre to the edge of the lump to dig up the cylinder and draw up the walls, using her left hand as support on the outside. When needed, she humidify her right hand’s knuckle to help the process. 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. When she is satisfied with the overall form of the pot, the potter starts to shape the rim. First, she roughly cuts the rim to the same length using her fingers. Then, she takes a banana flower leafe and places it astray on the edge of the pots, holding it with her left hand on the inside and her right hand on the outside. She presses her fingers around 3cm under the rim and turns around the pot while keeping the pressure to create the shoulder of the pot then, she moves her hands to enlarge the opening. Finally, she can use her knuckles on the inside again, to adjust the shape. In the background, Hốih Tiến, Hà Thị Sương and Zơrâm Thị Nga are pounding the clay.