The two Tewa pueblos of Santa Clara and Ohkay Owingeh are neighbors and it is to be expected that influence in Southwest Indian Pottery production and design would overflow from one to the other.  That is quite likely the event responsible for this black jar.

The top half of the jar had red slip applied and then stone polished.  The lower half of the jar was stone polished without addition of slip.  This process is normally associated with Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo.

Read more about this historic pottery here.

The Spaniards bred two kinds of sheep, the churro and merino.  Churro sheep were well adapted to sparse countryside and the merino was the finest sheep in the world, so fine it was reserved for the royal family and the nobility and its export from Spain was punishable by death.  Based on this, it is obvious that the Spaniards brought churro sheep to the American Southwest and left the merino sheep for royalty.  They adapted well to the southwest which had a climate similar to Spain.

Churro sheep produced fine, long-stapled wool which was well suited to the Navajo hand-spindle. The Navajo acquired their churro sheep by raids on Spanish rancheros and Pueblo Indian farms.  They lost all their sheep during their forced relocation and containment at Bosque Redondo in the 1860s.  After Bosque Redondo, the government allotted $30,000 to re-stock sheep for the Navajo as they returned to their homeland. The replacement sheep were churro as well.

Read more about this Navajo rug here.

"Ahöl Mana occurs only on Second Mesa at the time of the Soyal.  She is a standard Kachina Mana except that she comes with Ahöla which by context makes her Ahöl Mana.  She accompanies Ahöla on his rounds to the various kivas and ceremonial houses.  In her hands she holds a tray with various kinds of seeds from the fields of the Kachina Chief." Wright 1973

Read more about this Katsina doll here.

Sadie Tsipa, according to the Social Security Death Index (a government publication) was born on July 1, 1915 and passed away on March 12, 2010.  She lived 94 years, 8 months, and 11 days according to the report.  I am not familiar with her as a potter, however, it is quite likely that she was no longer active in the late 1970s when I opened the gallery and started purchasing from potters.

Read more about this pottery here.

To make sandcast jewelry, there are numerous steps. First, a design is carved into a mold.  Then the artist pours molten silver into the mold. It is then taken out and finished by hand. The mold is only good for a single object, so each is one of a kind.

Read more about this bracelet here.

When the railroad came to New Mexico in the 1880s, it brought with it tourists eager to purchase souvenirs to remind them of their adventure west. By the early 20^th century, Fred Harvey had built a chain of hotels along the railroad catering to the tourist trade.  This small pill box would have been found in a Fred Harvey gift shop. It is beautifully hand stamped and has well-crafted hinges and a tight clasp.

Read more about this pill box here.

This bracelet consists of five domed and stamped silver strips separated at the top and anchored at the ends with a silver bar.  The two outer strips are slightly higher at the center than the three inner ones, acting as guards.

Read more about this Navajo bracelet here.

Santo Domingo (now Kewa) Pueblo pottery exhibits a strong and bold design concept.  The black guaco paint, when painted on the cream slip, appears almost transparent, but fires to a beautiful black.  The guaco does not perform well on other slips but finishes beautifully on this particular Kewa Pueblo native slip.  The Southwest Indian Pottery dough bowl probably dates to the 1930s decade.

Read more about this historic pottery here.

Zuni Pueblo pottery from the 1760 to 1860 period has been named Kiapkwa Polychrome.  Traits of Kiapkwa Polychrome are black rim tops and red slip on the underbody.  A decade later (1870), changes began to be noticed.  The red underbodies began to be painted over by black pigment.  It took several decades for the transition to be complete.  The red bottoms disappeared completely by 1895.  Other changes occurred on jars but less noticeably on bowls.

Read more about this historic bowl here.

Chuck and Jan Rosenak, authors and collectors of Navajo folk art, give credit to Navajo trader Jack Beasley of Farmington, New Mexico, for bringing attention nationwide to the crafts of the Navajo.  Jack had operated a trading post in the 1970s and then he and his wife opened a gallery in Farmington, New Mexico, in 1989.  Quite familiar with the arts of the Navajo from his trading post days, Beasley featured it in the gallery and concentrated on the folk art style of which by then he was quite familiar.  Beasley was partly responsible for igniting the fire in the Rosenaks for folk art of the Navajo.

Read more about this folk art here.

Authors and collectors Chuck and Jan Rosenak are largely responsible for bringing to attention the craft now known as Navajo folk art.  They credit Navajo trader Jack Beasley from Farmington, New Mexico, for bringing the makers of this wonderful creative art form to their attention.  When beginning their search for folk art artist on the Navajo reservation, the Rosenaks defined folk art as "work by untrained, self-taught artists that is nonutilitarian, highly personal, even idiosyncratic.  The craft may be derived from communal traditions, but something personal must be added to qualify it as art.  In other words, the craft may be learned, but the art is self-taught."

Read more about this folk art here.

The traditional perception of Navajo folk art is weavings and silver and turquoise jewelry, but the contemporary artists of the Navajo Nation produce wood carvings, sun-dried mud toys, fired pottery, pictorial weavings and cardboard cutout figurines.  It is the latter category that is of interest to us here.

Mamie Deschillie, an older Navajo woman, born in 1920, created a new folk art style in the 1980s that has made her one of the "superstars" of Navajo folk art.

Read more about this folk art here.

   Navajo Folk Art was discovered and brought to the attention of folk art collectors in the 1970s by Chuck and Jan Rosenak.  It is not that they created it or caused it to happen.  They were on a nation-wide search for folk art from the east to the west and north to the south.  Most of the folk art they discovered came out of immigrant-generated craft traditions from the old world.

Read more about this fold art here.

This Colophon print was printed from the original woodblock hand-carved by Gustave Baumann (1881-1971).  None of the prints in Colophon were ever signed in pencil, but this one does include Baumann's initials and his monogram cypher of a hand palm in a heart in the lower left corner.  No other editions of this woodcut were ever issued.

Read more about this print here.

Known for breaking down natural shapes into geometric patterns of line and color, Kenneth Adams became the last and youngest member of the Taos Society of Artists. In contrast to the other members, whose work was grounded in late 19th-Century academic principles, he was a contemporary realist, deeply influenced by Cubist experiments of the French artist, Cezanne, and American modernist, Andrew Dasburg. Adams was a key figure in New Mexico art circles and bridged the "old guard" artists and new arrivals.

Read more about this drawing here.

Earrings of silver loops and silver balls are one of the oldest style made and worn by Navajo men.  Curtis photographs of Navajo men documented their use.  Generally they were comprised of one look and one silver ball.  This set, however, is more elaborate.

Read more about this jewelry here.

These charming earrings, made by an unknown Navajo jeweler, were constructed from silver wire for the spider's legs and a small silver strip for the bezel that secures the turquoise stone.  The Southwest Indian Jewelry earrings are fitted for pierced ears.

Read more about this jewelry here.

Mostly, this artist is known to collectors as Percy Sandy or Kai-Sa, but Sandy is a corruption of his name, which is Tsisete.  Generally, however, he signed Percy Sandy or Kai-Sa.  He was born at Zuni Pueblo in 1918 and attended elementary and secondary schools in Zuni.  He attended Santa Fe Indian School to do postgraduate work.  He later moved from Zuni to Taos where he died in 1974.

Read more about this painting here.

Chile bowls have their start in life as any other pottery bowl-that is they have a clay bottom formed in a puki and side walls that grow upward one coil at a time.  Their walls are scraped and sanded and eventually painted with a design of the choice of the potter or a design fostered by tradition.  The best view of a bowl is from the side at a slight angle so one can appreciate the decorated exterior and have a glimpse of the interior below the rim.  The interior of a utilitarian bowl is not decorated but the patina developed over years or decades of use is worth viewing.

Read more about this Kewa pottery here.

   Santo Domingo members are known as being the most aggressive traders in a pueblo that otherwise is considered very conservative.  Santo Domingo men boarded the trains that passed the pueblo daily, starting in 1880, to sell pottery being made by the female family members.  Sales such as these provided funds for the purchase of supplies and foods from stores or the trading post.  The leaders at the pueblo tolerated the men selling pottery to outsiders but frowned upon and discouraged the women from dealing with outsiders.  The elders also forbade the sale of other pueblo items such as costuming or clothing used in dance celebrations.

Read more about this pottery here.