Great artisans are usually capable of:

• Using hands and arms in handling, installing, positioning, and moving materials.
• Performing precise and skillful manipulation of small objects.
• Being active and proactive in regards to physical activities that require considerable use of your arms and legs and moving your whole body, such as climbing, lifting, balancing, walking, stooping, and handling materials.

Innovators will usually have four main goals:

• Developing or creating new applications, relationships, systems, or products.
• Providing creative ideas or artistic contributions.
• Keeping up-to-date technically and applying new knowledge to your job.
• Benchmarking, experimenting and testing novel approaches to solving problems.

• Pressing thumbs into centers of revolving clay for forming hollows, and press on the inside and outside of emerging clay cylinders with hands and fingers, gradually raising and shaping clay to desired forms and sizes.
• Mixing and applying glazes, and loading glazed pieces into kilns for firing.
• Positioning balls of clay in centers of potters’ wheels, and starting motors or pumping treadles with feet to revolve wheels.
• Raising and shaping clay into wares such as vases and pitchers, on revolving wheels, using hands, fingers, and thumbs.
• Designing clay forms and molds, and decorations for forms.
• Moving pieces away from wheels so they can dry.
• Pulling wires through bases of articles and wheels for separating finished pieces.
• Examining finished ware for defects and measuring dimensions, using rulers and thickness gauge.
• Performing testing fires of pottery for determining the best techniques for achieving specific colors and textures.
• Maintaining supplies of tools, equipment, and materials, and ordering additional supplies as needed.