For my pottery, the process starts with the gathering of clay & volcanic ash; they are hand coil-built into pottery (or a clay sculpture), while still wet I carve the design or add relief work, and when it is dry it is then prepped for stone polishing, (no clay slip is used for polishing), and then fired. On some pieces, the turquoise is strung onto a jewelry wire, and glued into the carved channel, (and occasionally the original earthen clay pottery or clay sculpture is used as a mold for a future bronze casting).
