Saggar maker

One of the beauties of the Chinese Harley is that you can stop when you see something interesting. On the bus or train it flies by you before you have a chance to hear it, smell it, see it and experience it. We dropped into a saggar makers shop. I apologize for the pics but it was pitch black in there and I could hardly see. The amazing technology of my little point and shoot gave me some images. The guy is standing there barefoot pushing soft clay into a Chinese version of a Peter pugger. There are no safety features and he just pushes the clay down into the pug mill with his hands. He then balls the clay and passes it to the jiggerman. Check out the days production of jiggered saggars to be sold to the potteries around Jingdezhen to protect the ware from all the atmosphere that we in the west go to great lengths to get more of.
There are those that brag that they have the skill to tap center a pot. They oughta check out a guy tap center a 5 foot bat with his foot so that he can throw a table top. Check out the table tops lining the road.