Making pamments. The first stage is to decide what colour we hope they will be when fired (nothing is certain, which is part of the pleasure). Then the various clays are dug out and crushed to reduce any stones. The crusher is raised off the ground (hence the conveyor belt) so that we can put a box underneath it to catch the clay as it falls through. This box is then taken into the factory. The next stage is putting it through the pug mill, with sand and a special additive. This compresses it, extruding it like a very large (and indegestible) sausage, which is then sliced up to make cake-tin shaped lumps of smooth clay. The clay is placed in a mould and shaped by the hydraulic press. The newly created pamment is separated from the mould and placed on a pallet to dry, which can take from 2 weeks to 6 weeks, depending on size and the weather. When they are dry enough, they are fired then allowed to cool, taken out of the kiln and packed in boxes.