It is formed in a bowl-shaped plaster mould in the same way as the rose-bowl described in Chapter VII. and the bowl for a lamp in Chapter VI., but the bottom is made unusually thick (three-quarters of an inch) to allow for cutting away, as the form is as nearly a hemisphere as possible, only flattened slightly at the bottom.
When the bowl has been built up to within an inch, perhaps, of the top of the mould, if it is not a deep one, make the next coil free from the sides of the mould—almost vertical, in fact. The coil that succeeds it slopes in ever so slightly.
This will make the shape deep enough. It is now necessary to let the bowl harden enough so that it can easily be slipped out of the mould. The hollows between the coils, after they have been wet with slip, are filled in with clay of the consistency of the bowl. The bowl is again set away to harden, and then smoothed and finished, as described in previous chapters, aiming to trim it as nearly as possible to the form of a half-sphere. After the edge has been cut as nearly true as possible by eye, it is made absolutely even by the process described in Chapter II.
Three handles are cut from a flat piece of clay about three inches wide by sixteen long and half an inch thick, in the shape shown in Fig. 52, and attached as follows: The circumference of the top of the bowl is divided into thirds and marked with a tool or pencil. It is then an easy matter to place the handles so that the centre of each shall be just above one of the marks on the top edge. At the points where the handles are to be attached, the top of the bowl is criss-crossed with the pointed steel tool and wet with slip. The handles are then placed in position, and their edges worked closely against the top and sides of the bowl with the flat of the nail. They should be curved in a little to follow the lines of the bowl (see Plate).
After the inside has been glazed with the glossy mixture mentioned in Chapter V., a mat-glaze of gray green will complete the bowl. The three raffia ropes by which the bowl is suspended are made as follows:
Thirty strands of natural-coloured raffia are doubled around one of the handles, and the ends are braided in a three-stranded plait for twelve inches, where they are tied. Two other braids are made on the other handles in the same way, and when they are twelve inches long the strands from all three braids are united in a thick loop.