World-building in Building Thunder #2 - Sculpting; Clay, Pots, and Grinders
Chicoryjump of ThunderClan guides Sedgepaw through sculpting a rainwater pot. Meanwhile, Elmpaw and Wortpaw take advantage of the fact that their teacher is distracted.
Clay is a valuable resource to the lake Clans! It’s used to sculpt bowls and pots, the latter of which are used to store rainwater and honey.
Gathering and Processing Clay
- Natural clay is gathered from riverbeds. Cats collect it by shoveling with the paws, sticks, etc, then moving it to a nice flat surface for processing.
- Processing involves cleaning the clay (picking out sticks and pebbles) then mixing in sand, which helps it hold its shape. While the sand isn’t totally necessary, it’s better to mix it in now rather than deal with misshapen pottery. Finally, the clay is sculpted into the desired shape and left to dry in a sunny location.
Bowls and Grinders
- Mortar & pestle for cats! Used by medicine cats (to make poultices) and RiverClan warriors (to prepare mashed salmon).
- Bowl is crafted out of clay. The grinder is just a small rock that can be held in the mouth (often surrounded by moss for comfort).
- Bowls can be made in a variety of sizes! Usually they’re small, but RiverClan makes bigger ones in late greenleaf to mash salmon in.
- Bowls are often crafted in batches and may be traded between Clans that have a good relationship.
Pots
- Pots have two uses in Clan culture: storing rainwater and storing honey. Rainwater is collected for cats who can’t leave camp, while honey is an invaluable antibacterial.
- Crafted out of clay and topped with a cover. The cover is woven and weighed down with a rock to keep it in place.
- Rainwater pots are larger than honey pots and stored around the edges of camp. When water needs to be collected, they’re rolled out into the clearing and left there during rainfall; to prevent disease, they need to be emptied after about two days.
- Honey pots are stored in the medicine den and are strictly off-limits to anyone but the healers.
