Preforming on leather hard clay of the bottom of a steaming pot (kơl hôl piêng)

To preform the hollow bottom of the steaming pot (kơl hôl piêng), Mai Kim proceeds in the exact same way she do for the roughing out of the pot. The bottom has been left as a compact cylindre of clay. She first presses around to form the cylindre and takes out the upper part to have the cylindre the size she needs. Then, she creates a furrow all aroun d the upper part of the cylinder, takes out the clay in the middle and spread it on the edge to make the walls higher. She uses her fingers to scrape the outside of the pot to draw up the walls of the bottom part. Finally, she uses water and a bamboo stick to smooth out the outside and a wet rage to shape the rim of the hollow bottom. During the whole process, she walks around the support of the pot. The process to make the hollow bottom is thus the exact same process than to make the pot itself. In the background we can hear LTS interviewing Yo Khoanh