Preforming on leather-hard clay phase 1 in Krăngọ village : shaping the bottom of a cooking pot (góh dam)

Ma Ly is pushing the bottom out from the inside, using her left hand as a support on the outside to prevent it from breaking. She pushes the centre to give the bottom a rounded shape. Then, she takes the paddle, dips it in water and begins to pat the walls of the pots. Her movement is slightly diagonal to the walls, pushing the clay down and smoothing the surface. She concentrates especially on the lower part of the walls to erase the traces of the previously flat body, and to create a smooth curve of the walls. When she is satisfied with it, she spreads some clay that she scraped out to even out the surface and rubs her hands with water over the bottom of the pot to finish to smooth it out. During the whole process, BBN and CdF interview Ma Ly about memories from the american period in Vietnam (1969-1975). Then about rituals and prohibitions in the craft.