Pottery

The Accoma Pueblo is located in Midwestern New Mexico. Acoma pottery is known for its distinctive white clay, thin walls and fine lines. Decoration ranges from corrugation (a specific textured look) to intricate geometric shapes or designs borrowed for ancient Mimbres culture painted in black and red/orange. While these factors vary widely, the wide background against which they appear remains constant.

Color aside, typical Acoma pottery is very thin and more traditional pieces will have and indented bottom, a modification that made it easier to carry on one's head when full of water. In particular, Acoma potters are known for their ollas. Used originally as water container, ollas are large, wide mouthed jars, which provide a large surface to showcase the striking designs of Acoma pottery.

Home of the famed Maria Martinez and her distinctive black ware, the Santa Clara and San Ildefonso pueblos have garnered the most fame and prestige of all the pueblos. The pueblos are located in Northeastern New Mexico. Though there are identifiable differences between San Ildefonso and Santa Clara, they are both noted for producing glossy black "gun-metal," and rich, shiny reddish finishes. The most common styles of decoration include matte designs contrasted against a shiny background - especially black on black - as well as deeply incised décor. A "water serpent" design is very common. Though the décor mentioned above are most famously Santa Clara, San Ildefonso potters continue to experiment and have developed several beautiful new styles, especially sgraffito (etched designs after firing) and intricate designs painted in slip.

Though the Jemez pueblo uses traditional materials and methods to create their pots, their distinctive style is a relatively recent innovation. Evidence has been unearthed indicating that prehistoric Jemez had a unique regional style. However, for over a century they have created very little pottery; or, more recently, crude, sun-baked pieces decorated with bright poster paints made especially for tourists.

Fortunately, as the demand for and popularity of all-things-Indian increased in the 70's and 80's, Jemez potters began to refine the quality of their pieces and search for a distinctive style of their own. Presently Jemez is known for matte-on-gloss designs and completely matte pieces containing stylized feathers and geometric designs. Many pieces have a glossy brown-red background with black designs. However, because of different artists' ability to experiment with color and style the parameters of Jemez pottery is always changing making it difficult to give exact descriptions of this tribe's style.

The Navajo Nation, Diné, as they call themselves, are relatively new to the world of commercial pottery. Historically the Navajo were first a nomadic people, then pastoral after the Spanish introduced them to sheep. Neither of these mobile lifestyles lent themselves well to the development of a pottery tradition.

At the mid-nineteenth century a handful of Navajo potters were producing utilitarian brown-ware pieces. Even then the distinguishing characteristic of a Navajo pot was a pinyon pitch finish. After firing, a pot is lacquered with melted pinyon pitch, producing a waterproof, thick, shiny, slightly sticky varnish over the whole pot. Once this distinction is recognized, a Navajo pot is easily picked out from a line up.

Today's Navajo pottery, produced mostly in Cow Springs, AZ, comes in a number of different styles. Some potters produce etched black or redware similar in style and quality to that of Santa Clara/San Ildenfonso. The Navajo reservation also produces more greenware (pre-cast pieces which are then decorated) than any other pueblo. However, the Navajo "style" has come to be rough brown-ware coated with pitch, often displaying fire-clouds, discolorations which happen during firing.

The Hopi pueblo, comprised by villages on three different mesas in Northwest Arizona, creates pottery which ranges from a warm, pale yellow to a rich brick-red. The majority of the decoration used by Hopi potters today stems from designs found at Sikyatki, a Hopi ruin below First Mesa. The style was given a second life by Nampeyo and her husband, Lesou. Nampeyo and Lesou were from the Tewa village on First Mesa, and began mimicking shards found during excavation and subsequently became the most famous of all Hopi potters. Many of today's foremost Hopi artists are descendants of Nampeyo and many others strive to claim lineage to make their wares more marketable.

There are a few innovative potters whom are breaking away from traditional pottery designs and creating something entirely new. Lawrence Namoki has successfully blended both traditional and contemporary techniques of pottery making while illustrating themes of Hopi life through both ceremonial symbolism and abstract Hopi designs.

Zia polychrome pottery made today is generally thick-walled, of reddish clay tempered with ground black basalt. One of the most distinctive marks of this pueblo pottery is the Zia bird. The bird may or may not have a split tail but has a straight beak and round body. Another recognizable element is a single or double band, which runs from top of the pot to the lower area, this is frequently called a "rainbow band." Flower motifs are popular as well as geometric designs, painted in black or red on a white or buff slip. Zia pottery, with it's animal and flower images, strikes many as the most whimsical and fun pottery.

Zuni Pueblo is located in the western region of New Mexico, close to the Arizona border, about 35 miles south of Gallup. Zuni potters use many traditional elements like water symbols, hunting symbols and applique. They make fine quality, thin-walled pottery by hand in the traditional manner, from coiling through polishing. Most Zuni pottery is pink, often covered by a white slip.

Preparing the Materials

1. The clay is reverently dug. Many potters offer a prayer or cornmeal before digging.
2. The clay is allowed to dry and is often ground and put through a sieve. It is then soaked and purified through kneading.
3. Temper is added (sand or ground up pottery) to keep the pottery from shrinking. The potters learn by experience the amounts of clay and temper to mix.
4. One half of the potting time is spend processing the materials (24 to 36 hours of work to mix up one cubic foot of clay).

Forming the Pottery

1. The pottery is coiled. Ropes of clay are wound on top of each other and smoothed together with a scraper.
2. The sun dried pottery is smoothed with sandpaper to hide all traces of the coils.
3. In some pueblos, the pottery is stone polished. The pot has a slip (a thin clay solution) painted on and is rubbed while still wet. The polishing must be completed before the slip dries.

Firing the Pottery

1. A fire pit is constructed. The pottery is placed on a grate above cedar logs and covered with sheets of metal so it will not come in contact with any flame. The metal is covered with cow or sheep dung upon which the fuel is lit.
2. In Santa Clara, the fire is smothered out with powdered horse manure to achieve the dark black color.

The wedding vase has been a part of pueblo life for centuries. The graceful spouts represent two separate lives. The bridge at the top part of the vessel unites these separate lives together as one. Two weeks before marriage the husband's parents provide the wedding vase during a small celebration. Gifts and advice are given to the bride and groom as they prepare to establish their new home together. On their wedding day, this vase is filled with Indian holy water and is given to the bride. She drinks from one side of the vessel while the groom partakes from the opposite side, a Native American equivalent of exchanging wedding bands. The couple will cherish their wedding vase throughout their married life.

The time-honored Indian Pueblo pottery tradition of working with clay and telling stories had merged into a modern art form of "Storyteller" pottery dolls.

The art of making clay effigies is as ancient as the Anasazi people who inhabited the deserts of New Mexico many centuries ago. In recent history it is the Cochiti pueblo potters who are known for clay effigies depicting many different aspects of their everyday life. Yet, it was not until 1964 that Helen Cordero of Cochiti pueblo created her first "Storyteller" figure. Cordero's Storyteller model was her grandfather who gathered his grandchildren around him to play the drum, sing them songs, and tell stories of their Indian heritage and traditions.

It is estimated that there are well over 200 Pueblo potters now creating Storytellers, and of these, quite a large number are Cochiti. Every potter has her own special clay, technique, tools, and colors that are use to create their Storytellers.

Other popular Storytellers are of other-than-human form, such as a variety of animals, corn, moccasins, etc. Indian potters also create an Indian "Nacimiento" (Nativity Scene) depicting their version of the birth of the Christ Child.

Prices of Storytellers may vary from a few dollars to several thousand dollars, depending on the popularity, fame, and awards the maker has won in art shows, galleries, and fairs.