Unlike most potters, who either throw their pottery shapes on a wheel or use the coil method to build their work, Mark uses an unusual yet simple stretching method for creation. For his larger pieces, Mark cuts a rectangular shape out of a clay slab and rolls it over a tube to form a crude cylinder. He then joins and reinforces the edges and adds a bottom. This basic cylindrical form is now ready for a design element, which is inscribed using one of many assorted tools. The piece is then to be shaped and engineered, using fingers and rubber ribs, into a unique one-of-a-kind clay form.

 

Smaller pottery shapes are made from a solid clay cylinder into which he inserts a dowel, compresses the sides until achieving the desired wall thickness, then incises a design element. Using stick-like tools, he then stretches the clay into the desired shape.