Preparing clay to make pottery in Krăngọ village 3 : sieving clay

The clay has been dried in the sun and pounded into fine powder. Ma Ly now sieves it, using a woven fibre sieve called “chơ nè”. She puts the large pieces on the side. They will be pounded a second time. In the past they would repeat the process until the clay was completely sifted. Since 2001, Ma Ly tried to find a way to ease the process, as pounding is quite tiring for her. She now only pound the clay twice. Then, she puts the remaining in water and let it sit for a few hours before sieving again. The act of sieving is called “aring” in the Koho language. Immediately after sifting, the potter adds some water to the dried clay and kneads it until it is smooth and homogeneous. The kneading is called “sơ pat u” (lit. humid to mix clay) in Koho language. During the process, Ma Ly explains in details how she does it now.