Sgraffito Spirals Scratched through Black Slip

Sgraffito comes from the Italian for scratched, the same root that gave English the word graffiti. The potter coats a pot in slip of a contrasting color and cuts through it while the clay is leather-hard, firm enough to hold a crisp line but still soft enough to carve. Loose spirals, dashes and crosshatching cover a big black dish resting on a plaster bat on a dusty bench. Every pale line in this sgraffito jigsaw puzzle was cut by hand with a wooden tool.