Throwing
Throwing can be done either on a mechanic or electric wheel, and requires long training and great skills. A spinning lump of plastic clay is transformed into a pot by the action of pressure of the hands. First the clay has to be centred, and then the lump is opened in the centre and pulled with the fingers to form the walls, using pressure both outside and inside of the pot. The Egyptians are believed to be the first to have used the potter's wheel, at about 3000 BC. In eastern Mediterranean countries, the wheel was introduced in the Bronze age, but in the rest of the world it was fist used in the Iron age, at the same time as wheeled carts were introduced.

Casting
There are two main ways to cast pots. The first is to press plastic clay into a mould to give it its shape. This can be done manually, or using a wheel; a hollow mould is fixed on the spinning wheel, a lump of plastic clay is pressed into it, and a blade with the inside profile of the object is pulled down. The second is a more complex technique and it implies the use of plaster moulds, usually composed of more pieces, allows repetition and to makeo shapes that would be almost impossible to produce with any other technique. A clay and water suspension is poured into the moulds, let set for a given amount of time (my casting takes around two hours) and the excess poured out. The clay molecules suspended in the water, form the walls of the object, whilst the plaster sucks in the liquid. A fluidificating agent or deflocculant (sodium silicate with sodium carbonate) is added to the clay suspension, because ordinary slip (liquid clay) would contain far too much water, and soak up the mould before achievement of the desired thickness. Once the cast is stiff enough to be handled, it is removed from the mould, refined, and assembled.

Hand building
It is the oldest and most spontaneous way to make pots. Techniques include coiling, slab building and pinching. Coiling is done by applying clay coils one on the top of the other and join them together using finger pressure. It is a very long process that allows great freedom. I particularly enjoy coiling for its meditative quality. Slab building is the building of a pot with the use of pre-cut clay slabs. It is a very controlled way to make pottery, requires careful planning but allows the making of very elaborated pieces. Pinching is done by first making a hole in a ball of clay, and then pinching
the walls into the desired thickness, whilst holding it in the other hand.