Kneading is the oldest method of shaping a vessel, done solely by hand without the use of a potter’s wheel. This technique was used to make baking simple pans (crepulja), roasting pans (pržulja), lids (vršnik), pots (grne), and others. In earlier times, ceramics made without the wheel were produced exclusively by women, which is why the term women’s ceramics appears in ethnographic literature.

On the hand-driven wheel, the potter turns the wheel with one hand while adding clay with the other, gradually building the vessel. This method was used to create pots, cooking pans, and bowls for preparing food on the hearth.

On the foot-operated wheel, the potter sets the lower wheel in motion with the feet, which, through an axle, turns the upper working wheel on which the vessel is shaped with both hands. Vessels made with this technique are slender, with thin walls, and included pots, bowls, or bottle-like forms such as pitchers, jugs, testija, bardak, kondir, and similar shapes.

Decoration could be applied to wet, dried, or fired clay. Wet clay is soft and suitable for decorating by pressing small dots, incising lines, adding and shaping clay rings, and similar methods.

Coloring ceramics could be achieved with different raw materials, which, after firing, became fixed and provided the required strength and durability during use. The most common were:

– Engobe – a type of clay of fine granulation, purified and dissolved in water.

– Glaze – a thin, glassy coating formed on the surface of the object during firing at high temperatures.