Master Trimmer

Today we had a master trimmer in the studio to trim some of the pots that a master thrower had made at the end of last week. Traditional ceramics in China are very assembly line-ish, unlike in the US where one person generally completes all of the steps involved in finishing a pot. Here, one person throws, one person trims, one person decorates, etc...The trimmer gets paid more than the thrower, and the decorator makes more than the trimmer. Another difference from how we generally work in the US is that rather than trimming at the leather-hard faze of drying, they trim the pots when they are bone dry. When I was learning to throw and trim, this was exactly what you did not want to do. Both master thrower and trimmer apprenticed under another master for a few years before they were able to work on their own. The thrower had been working for 14 years, and the trimmer 7. It's amazing to watch them work, they know exactly how to work the clay and they can do it FAST.