The Anasazi, as the Ancestral Puebloans are commonly known, used clay to make more than adobe. The Anasazi used clay to make pottery too. Here's how they did it. The Anasazi coiled clay in a spiral, just like a snake, to give each pot its shape. To ensure their pots didn't leak, the Anasazi scraped the coils together with sharp pieces of gourd or wood. They baked the clay pots in the fire and when they cooled the Anasazi used small stones to polish them smooth. The Anasazi made paint from boiled plants and from the minerals of crushed rock. And they made paintbrushes from the fibers of the yucca. The Anasazi decorated their pots with geometrical designs but didn't consider their pottery works of art. They used their pottery for cooking and storing food but never as a decoration.