The sharp-pointed steel tool,
A plaster tile,
A rolling-pin.
A quaint Dutch dish, brought from Holland years ago, was the model for this sturdy little piece of pottery. It may be used for candy or to hold a vase of flowers, or a potted plant, protecting a polished table. A lump of clay is rolled on a table with the hands and a rolling-pin to the thickness of half an inch. Upon this clay sheet a rectangle four and a quarter by four and a half inches is drawn with a pencil and cut out with the pointed steel tool. It is then transferred to a plaster tile.
To the edge of this rectangle a coil of clay is attached according to the directions in Chapter II., and flared slightly outward, taking care not to make the corners sharp, but rounded and even. After the first coil has stiffened, and the sides have been made somewhat uniform and thin, it is cut even by eye, curving the edge up gradually toward the middle of the sides and depressing it slightly at the corners.
A second coil is now added, but instead of attaching it to the top of the first one, it is joined just below the top and inside the first coil. When it has stiffened sufficiently in the air, the dish is smoothed carefully inside and out with the hand and the wooden modelling tools, making the walls even and thin and perfecting the shape.
The effect of legs is given by cutting under the sides, beginning half an inch above the bottom. If this is started three-quarters of an inch from the corners, it will leave a sturdy, short leg an inch and a half wide at each of the four corners of the dish.
A roll of clay about five and a half inches long, an inch wide, and three-eighths of an inch thick is made into a handle (see plate), which is attached at the middle of one of the sides of the dish. At the two points where it is to be joined, the side of the dish is criss-crossed with the steel tool and wet with slip.
The bottom is finished by drawing a square with a pencil, half an inch in from the edge, and depressing it within the square, so as to leave a flat, even surface. The potter’s mark is then made within this square.