Pottery and Baskets

One of the reasons I felt so much at home in New Mexico is the incorporation and appreciation of decorative arts in daily life. Every home had Indian pottery, woven rugs, baskets. Everyone had knowledge and understanding of these objects and their artistry. It was so unlike the urban area where I live, in which price so often determines value and beauty, whether it is manufactured by machine or a reflection of human endeavor. I was taught to value flaws as a reflection of originality, but so often this point of view now seems anachronistic.

So many people in New Mexico, whether they worked as full-time artists or not, created art. Many of the Native American artists either had other, more worldly jobs, or only started making art after a life lived more ordinarily.However, economic concerns aside, so many Native American decorative arts are family endeavors, with husbands and wives working on the same projects, and parents teaching their children their mastery of the craft.

As much as I love baskets, the original Native-made baskets, especially the older ones, were prohibitively priced. There were many baskets that looked like the older ones, but were made in Pakistan or Mexico, which muddied the waters too much for me. Was the beauty of the basket really diminished by it being made elsewhere? The baskets looked enough alike that I was unwilling to pay for the authentic ones when it could just as well have been made elsewhere. However, I didn't want an "elsewhere" basket, and when it comes right down to it, you have to have an uncluttered house and life for the baskets to be displayed properly. I have several hand-made and authentic Polynesian baskets and an authentic California pine needle basket that already do that job; any others would get lost in the shuffle. Blackstone General Store in Albuquerque is the only place I encountered that had authentic baskets (Hopi) at a reasonable price; the owner nicely clued me in that authentic baskets always have an open space somewhere on the basket. Again, the thought of where I would put the authentic basket and what I would use it for prevented me from purchasing it.

Pottery of course is ubiquitous. Though I found some wonderful stores in Albuquerque for it (the jewelry outlet off of Gibson near Kirtland Air Force Base was my best find), there are subtleties you can only learn by experience and talking to experienced artists and collectors. The handmade pots are slightly irregular and to be cherished; while the pots that come from molds are attractive, they are not authentically or as well made. In Sky City, I learned about the difference between ceramic clay and traditional clay and pots (one is manufactured, the other is froom the area and involves traditional and ancient pot building methods). Pricewise and artistically, the traditional, handmade pot rules. However, sometimes there is no way to determine the true quality of a pot unless the pot is dismantled. I went through Sky City, a settlement (still occupied by local families despite a lack of electricity and running water) dating back from the 12th century (some original buildings still intact), with an extremely knowledgeable trade guide, my son, and a jeweler and his wife, who were passionate, if not obsessed, with pottery. The jeweler was down to his last hundred dollars after touring pueblo after pueblo in search of authentic pottery. Local artists have their studios on the mesa and sell from their studios and homes. It was the experience of a lifetime to be in this place and spend time with these artists.

Despite claims that Native Americans never developed a written language, storytelling pottery tells a story through lines and shapes. It is a language that tells a story. Jagged lines indicate thunder; a circular pattern the stars, and so on. There are symbols for sky, sun, rain. Creation stories are told, and religious tales preserved. The Acoma artists in Sky City were very generous with their time explaining the story on each pot. Acoma pottery is known for the roughness on the inside of the pot, the black and white outside decorations, and the traditional pink clay. Their pots are created from coil, and so a traditional pot sits heavily, as opposed to a non-traditional pot. The jeweler was very anxious to discover if all of the pots he'd purchased during his trip were traditional, as advertised.

The Navaho pots were plentiful. The colored pots are intricately decorated and etched, then painted with many colors. Navaho horeshair pottery is especially pleasing; it looks like marble, but this is the result of actual horsehairs being stuck in the glaze before firing.

Santa Clara pots were the most coveted, with even the smallest pots costing upwards of $50. Santa Clara trademark pots are black, which is the result of dung being mixed with the clay.

Wedding pots are the pots with 2 spouts. The apocryphal story is that when married, the new couple drink together to symbolize their recent union.

Authentic pots are always signed; the danger for the purchaser is to ensure that the pots are hand made as well as hand painted; many tourist spots create mass produced pots and have a local artist paint then and sign for the painting only. The signature should include the artist's pueblo or tribe. However, I was also warned that sometimes artists who married into a certain pueblo or clan will then sign pottery with the pueblo's name, though they have little to no claim to it.