Nerikomi technique
Nerikomi is a Japanese word in origin. It is an artistic technique for creating patterns with colored clay. Clays are colored with stains or oxides, are stacked, folded, pressed into logs, sliced, and arranged in or on a mold to form for example a vessel. This technique allows the pattern to penetrate through the vessel wall so that the identical pattern is visible on both inside and outside the vessel. Creating nerikomi is a slow process with technical challenges. The nerikomi technique of a sort was already in use by the Chinese in the 7th and 8th centuries.