Renee Altman, potter and owner of The Clay Queen Pottery on Mount Vernon, focuses on the upcoming Halloween Season by creating a pumpkin. Altman wedges off a hunk of clay, kneads it 100 times "like bread dough.” Then onto a bat placed on the potting wheel where Altman's hands gradually form the clay into a cylinder, thinning the sides and pressing the clay out into a pumpkin. She will etch a leaf pattern and lobes around the pumpkin. It will be fired in an electric kiln, glazed and fired again for 12 hours in a gas kiln where the temperature will reach 2300 degrees.