I spent one day walking around the Lao Chang Ceramics Factory in Jingdezhen. The word "factory" is used loosely here. The factories are actually large areas of town devoted to producing specific types of pottery. Some studios are slip casters, some are throwers, some are decorators. Each factory has hundreds of studios lining the streets.
These guys were on a street where everyone was throwing large pots. They aren't the largest pots thrown in Jingdezhen but they were still pretty big (about 2 1/2 feet tall.) It was amazing to see how the two guys worked together to center and pull the walls. One touched the clay while the other was pushing on the outside of his hands. The wheel stayed at a constant speed as they moved effortlessly through the motions. They worked very quickly spending about 10 minutes on each pot. After the piece was finished a third guy took it off the wheel to place it outside under a drying tent. A forth guy handed an already wedged piece to the thrower and the process started over.
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