This is an exceptional new piece by Russell Sanchez.  He continues to be one of the true innovators in Pueblo pottery.  Each piece is perfectly coil-built, stone polished, and etched.  This jar harkens to some of his earlier sculptural rim pottery, however, this piece has so many creative new additions to his work. First, the story of the jar.  The sculptural rim represents the rain with the five bears and the sun coming out after the rain.  Now to the technical.  The rim of the jar is polished and the sculptural part actually combines three layers of clay!  Russell said he added various clays of different colors and then kept adding them so that the rim is about 1/4 inch thick. It’s the thickness of the clay that really adds to the piece. The body of the jar is polychrome, using black, red, and white clay slips.  On this part, notice how he has carved more deeply into the jar so that the background area that is slipped black has more deeply carved away.  Each of the five bears is polished white and outlined with red clay. They have both coral and turquoise inset for the heartlines!  Finally, there is the sun.  The ten rays of the sun are extending outward with coral insets. Check out the top band of the sun that is tan and incised with vertical lines.  There is a lightning bolt that also extends downward from the surface.  The piece is exciting in design and complex in technical form, with layers of carving, various clays, a traditional firing, and 118 inset stones across the entire surface!   As Russell continues to innovate from historic designs, he says, “Tradition means moving forward and adding to it. You keep moving forward.  If we stayed stagnant, we would no longer exist.”  The jar is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Russell ’24”.