Paddle and Anvil

The paddle and anvil technique, used after the coil construction method, shapes and smooths a coil built object. A finishing process, it is done by placing a flat rock or wood (the anvil) against the inside vessel wall and beating the outside lightly using a piece of wood as a paddle. This smooths the clay while also ridding it of extra moisture. Without this technique, there would be a very high amount of failures in the firing process.