Another traditional way to make a pot is to built it up with coils of clay formed by rolling clay into “snakes” ...

... and joining one to another to build the walls of a vessel.

Clay is pressed across the coils so they are firmly joined.

A tool called a rib is used to pull clay across the coils and smooth the outside of the pot.

Some potters drape a slab of clay over a bowl to make a vessel.

Potters from Mata Ortiz begin making their pots by forming a thick clay “pancake.” After coating a plaster mold with vegetable oil, Lucy Mora presses her clay “pancake” inside the mold. She pinches the clay as she turns the mold. As the clay thins and rises she adds one or two large doughnut-like coils to build its height, blending the seams to avoid cracking.

The plaster form allows Lucy to turn the pot steadily as she scrapes and pinches its sides. She uses a broken hacksaw blade as a tool.

When the pot is finished and partially dried, it shrinks. It will be removed from the plaster form and set aside to dry completely.

Below another potter from Mata Ortiz, sandpapers the surface of a thoroughly dried, or “bone dry”, pot.

The surface is coated with vegetable oil and polished with a cloth.

Another potter polishes a dried pot with a river rock until its surface is very smooth.

Lucy Mora made the largest of the pots below. They are on display after having been polished, decorated with slip made from different colored clays, and fired.

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