Editing Sculpture (section)

===Pottery===
{{further|Pottery#Shaping methods}}
Pottery is one of the oldest materials for sculpture, as well as clay being the medium in which many sculptures cast in metal are originally modelled for casting. Sculptors often build small preliminary works called [[maquette]]s of ephemeral materials such as [[plaster|plaster of Paris]], wax, unfired clay, or [[plasticine]].<ref>[http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/s/clay-into-terracotta/ V&A Museum, Sculpture techniques: modelling in clay] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120802094251/http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/s/clay-into-terracotta/ |date=August 2, 2012 }}, accessed August 31, 2012.</ref>  Many cultures have produced pottery which combines a function as a vessel with a sculptural form, and small [[figurine]]s have often been as popular as they are in modern Western culture. Stamps and moulds were used by most ancient civilizations, from [[Ancient Roman pottery|ancient Rome]] and Mesopotamia to China.<ref>Rawson, 140–44; Frankfort 112–13; Henig, 179–80.</ref>