But this parallel also serves to reveal the differences between them. While the potter attempts to expel air from the clay, and shapes it such that it eventually serves to contain organic matter, the baker through a leavening agent injects air into the dough so that it is more digestible and capable of filling the stomach. The potter deflates, while the baker inflates. But let's take the process further.
Ceramics is a lot more than the process of baking shaped clay.
Bread-making has to a certain degree already established an identity for itself within the mythology of ceramics. The writing of Bernard Leach points to a fellowship between the two pursuits. Repeat work is like making good bread. That is where the pleasure lies. Although it appears to others to be tedious and monotonous, to those who actually perform this activity it is actually quite stimulating and changeable.