The clay used for "Bridge" was mined in central Taiwan, China and comes in a variety of colors from buff to red ,depending on the amount of iron oxide in it . To create a light brown color, Ah Leon mixes clay from different batches in a pub mill. He reprocesses the clay in the pub mill to remove air , which could cause a crack when the clay is fired.
     CLAY SLABS

     Clay tubes from the pug mill are flattened with a wooden mallet and then a rolling pin .
    Ah Leon uses his hands to contour the sides of the slabs that will become planks for the top of "Bridge", there by imparting an unevenness that imitates rough wood.

    POSTS AND BEAMS

    Post and beams, the vertical and horizontal support structures of "Bridge", are weight-bearing elements constructed as hollow boxes, Each is made of four slabs of clay joined together in a elaborate multi-step process.

    REINFORCING POSTS AND BEAMS

    On the interior side of a joint where two clay slabs meet ,Ah Leon creates a groove and fills it with slip; then a thin roll of clay is worked into the joint with a drumstick-shaped bamboo knife. After joining three slabs into a U-shaped open box, Ah Leon places four small rectangular slabs of clay inside the hollow box to keep the sides from collapsing or warping during firing

   TEXTURING PLANKS, POSTS, AND BEAMS
  
    When the clay is leather-hard, Ah leon textures it while looking at his sketch for "Bridge". At first the used real wood samples as models but later worked from memory. Ah Lean dents the clay with a wooden meat tenderizer and gouges out areas to create a rough shaped knife (imported from Yixing) across the surface of the clay ,Knotholes are made by inlaying purple clay imported from Yixing.

    FINISHING TEXTURE
    After carving the clay with the fish-belly-shaped knife, Ah Leon creates further texture by using the scored end of a wooden meat tenderizer, the rough handle of a metal screwdriver, and a homemade tool of crinkled metal, He finishes the texture with a small wire brush and a whisk broom, The small clay particles created during the texturing look like sawdust after firing. To enrich the color of the clay before firing, a solution of water, powdered cobalt, iron, and manganese is brushed onto the posts, beams, and planks.
   
    NAILS

     The clay for the "nails" consists of Taiwan clay mixed with thirty percent imported porcelain, enabling the tiny nails to withstand the same high-temperature firing as the posts, beams, and planks without collapsing. Small amounts of cobalt and manganese ore impart a metallic color. Red slip applied with a scouring pad before firing creates "rust".
    
   FIRING
    Ah Leon fires each piece in his eight-flame gas kiln, which measures half a cubic meter. He keeps meticulous sketches, logbooks, and photographs of every firing, noting information about how he stacked objects in the kiln, firing times ,and temperatures. The temperature is gradually raised to 1250℃  over several days with periods of reduction beginning at 1120℃ for anywhere form twenty minutes to two hours at a time. The planks are fired for thirty-six hours; the hollow posts and beams, for forty-eight. He may extinguish tow of the eight flames to create an unstable atmosphere that produces variegated colors in the clay slabs, The kiln is unloaded after two days of cooling, If dissatisfied with the final colors, Ah Leon recoats the ceramic slabs with more  cobalt, iron, and manganese solution and refires them at a lower temperature. Some pieces require several refirings.