In shaping the pieces, the fingers did the work unaided, except where a basket or gourd was used as a mould, or where such simple tools as could be fashioned of clay, stone, or shell were employed. A piece of a gourd was sometimes held against the inner wall to support it while the outer surface was being scraped and smoothed with these rude tools.
The bottom of the piece was formed either from a small lump of clay patted and moulded into proper shape by the fingers, or with the end of a clay strip which was coiled around on itself. In whichever way the bottom was begun, the walls were made of coils of clay. The ancient Cliff Dwellers, or Pueblos, used this method very skilfully. Their strips of clay were cut and coiled with great exactness, and the edges overlapping on the outside made spiral markings. There are no evidences of anything like the potter’s wheel, the nearest approach being the basket-mould, which was probably turned with one hand as the coil of clay was applied with the other.
The markings of cords and weaving which are often seen on the outer surfaces of Indian pots and vases were probably made by pliable fabrics, which were used to support the piece as it was formed. Woven textures were also wrapped over the hand, or a tool, to impress the wet clay, and cords wound about paddles or other tools made similar impressions. In some cases, the outer surface was rubbed smooth with the fingers and thumb, or with a stone; in others, the coil structure is plainly seen. After the body of the piece was finished, the rim was perfected, and the handles, legs, or other parts in relief were applied. These were made separately, and were attached by pressure and rubbing.
In decoration, the potters of each tribe had different ideas, as well as tools and devices for working them out. The fingers and nails were used to produce certain effects, and tools of various kinds were made for special purposes—pointed ones for incising, gouge-like tools to scrape away the clay, and all kinds of stamps for impressed designs. Some of the stamps were in paddle form (such as we use for making butter-balls), others were thin disks with indented edges, which were rolled over the soft clay surface.
Incised designs were perhaps the most usual, though colour was often employed in decorating the ware. Especially was this the case in the Pueblo country and in Arkansas. The colours were white, brown, red, and black, and they were mostly powdered clay, sometimes mixed with ochres. The surface of the piece first received a wash of fine paste, and afterward the colours, ground fine and mixed with water, were applied with the finger or a piece of reed-grass. The designs were generally made by the women. Circles and curved designs were most used, probably because they could be made with such freedom, in contrast to the slow and painstaking process of weaving right-angled designs into baskets.
The pottery was dried in the shade, in the sun, or before the fire, and afterward baked more or less thoroughly. Some tribes—the Catawbas, for example—simply baked their ware before the fire, while others covered the pieces with burning bark or other fuel, surrounding them evenly with it inside and out. The pieces were protected from contact with each other by broken pieces of pottery. They were carefully kept from draughts during the firing and the first part of the cooling, for fear of cracking.
Among the Cherokees, a glossy black was given to the inner surface of the pottery by what was known as smother-firing. When the process of baking, just described, was completed, the vessel was turned bottom up, over a small hole in the ground, which had been filled with burning corncobs. From time to time the fuel was renewed until in half an hour the inside of the piece had become glistening black.