Painted on a wheel while the clay is still soft, designs are incised through the paint layer into the soft clay pots. The score lines, made with fine carving tools, become part of the design and the resulting art piece is called Sgraffitto. Etched art is done on either red terracotta clay or white gypsum clay and after being fired, the resulting design shows either the bright white (gypsum) or the red earth-colored (terracotta) background seen on the various pieces. Traditionally, Native American Indian pottery is NOT glazed on the inside. If you put liquid in an unglazed pot it will seep through as clay is very porous; if the pot is glazed on the inside then you can put liquid in it and not worry about the liquid seeping through the clay.
