Lucy Lewis Acoma Pueblo Fine Line Bowl [SOLD]

Few Acoma potters today make pottery using all the old traditional techniques.  Some potters purchase molded pottery (greenware), paint it and then fire it in a commercial kiln.  Some others use commercial clay, commercial paint, and fire in a commercial kiln. Most of the older women potters, primarily those we think of as matriarchs, always followed all traditional steps in making pottery.  Lucy Martin Lewis (1898-1992) was certainly one who never deviated from tradition. She continued throughout her life making pottery in the traditional way: digging and preparing clay, grinding potsherds for temper, coiling clay into a vessel shape, making her paints from plant and mineral elements, and firing the finished vessels in an open outdoor handmade kiln.

This bowl by Lucy Lewis is one of her complicated designs involving fine lines arranged in star patterns.  It truly must be one of the most difficult designs to accomplish accurately. It is signed and dated 1966.

Condition: this Lucy Lewis Acoma Pueblo Fine Line Bowl is in very good condition with a few spall marks.

Provenance: from a gentleman from New Mexico.

Recommended Reading: Lucy M. Lewis: American Indian Potter by Susan Peterson

Lucy Lewis (1898-1992) Acoma Pueblo - image Adobe Gallery