The first step in creating a pot is gathering the clay. The clay is gathered once a year, usually in October when it is dry and stored in an old weathered adobe structure where the temperature remains constant. When Martinez is ready to begin molding the clay to form a pot, the right amount of clay is brought into the house. A cloth, laid upon a table, holds a mound of gray pink sand with a fist hole in the center filled with an equal amount of blue sand. A smaller hole is made in the blue sand and water is poured into the hole. The substances are then all kneaded together, picked up within the cloth, washed, and covered with a towel to prevent moisture from escaping where the clay will sit for a day or two to dry. The pukis or "the supporting mold, a dry or fired clay shape where a round bottom of a new piece may be formed" builds the base shape of the pot looking like a pancake. After squeezing the clay together with one's fingers, a wall is pinched up about an inch high from the pancake base. A gourd rib is used in cross-crossing motions to smooth out the wall, making it thick and even. Coiling long tube shapes of clay on the top of the clay wall and then smoothing it out with the gourd increases the pot's height. Air holes are patched with extra clay and sealed away with the gourd rib like a patch being sewn on a pair of blue jeans.