From clay to kiln
The coiled legs carry the tabletop. To make the tabletop, a piece of clay is pushed and molded until it has a round and flat shape. Upon that tabletop are two tiny vessels and one animal figurine. The rolling technique that was used for the legs was most likely also applied to the cups. The animal, however, was created by a technique called “pinching”; using fingers to push and pull a piece of clay into shape.
When the legs, the plateau, the vessels and the animal were all ready, the potter could piece everything together. The potter had to make sure that no air would get stuck between the table and the items, otherwise the air would expand in the oven and break the items! The table would then be placed in a kiln and left to bake at a temperature of about 900-1000 ℃. After taking it out of the kiln, the table was left to cool down. Then, it was time to paint. For that, let us return to one of the legs...