potmaker explores individual conflicts
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Answer:
Explanation:
Potmaking, as it is made clear throughout the story, is no easy task. It is back- breaking and often frustrating work, and offers little reward for all the effort put in. Procuring and preparing the clay was exhausting all on its own, as it had to be dug out of a hillside sixteen kilometers from the village and brought back and pounded with water in a bamboo rod to be softened. Making the pots was strenuous work as well, and the potmaker’s arms would go numb and scream in pain with every tap of the spatula, sometimes causing her to drop the mould and have to start the process all over again. Moreover, the risk of losing hours, days and even weeks of hard work was ever present, with the rain threatening to ruin a batch of pots drying out in the sun, or the firing of the kiln being done improperly and destroying week’s worth of labour. Even then, the few pots that managed to survive the process wouldn’t all sell for a lot of money, and would end up fetching barely enough to compensate for the time and effort invested in making the pot. Process of potmaking: The process of potmaking was long and arduous. The red and grey clay used to make the pots was found on a riverbank sixteen kilometers from the town. It had to be dug out from the hillside and painfully hauled up a steep incline and all the way back to the village. It then had to be pounded with water in a bamboo pole to get softened. Then, the lump of clay was placed on the pot-maker’s lap, and her left hand would carefully rotate it as her right one would tap on it rhythmically with the spatula, giving it shape. Once it had taken the shape of a pot it would be placed in the workspace, being handled gingerly so as to not disturb the still moist clay, and would stay there for a few days to harden. After receiving occasional taps to check its consistency and to maintain its shape, the pot would then be taken out to dry in the sun. After that, they were placed in a kiln between two layers of hay and dried bamboo, and fired. The fire had to be tended constantly as the pots required a uniform temperature, and over firing or under firing would ruin the batch