WOW!  This is a spectacular large bowl by Rondina Huma.  She has certainly been one of the most influential Hopi potters working today.  Since her two-time “Best of Show” awards at Santa Fe Indian Market, her tight style and intricately painted pottery have changed the face of contemporary Hopi pottery.   Each piece is coil-built, fully stone polished, painted with native clays and bee-weed (black), and native-fired.  This bowl is an elegant round form.  It is fully polished on the inside and outside. The top has a starburst pattern with SIXTEEN panels of design!  Around the shoulder is her triangular mountain pattern.  Below the shoulder are two large squares and two large diamond shapes, all filled in with mini-shard designs.  Each of the shard designs is distinctive and different and the red areas are also stone polished. The burgundy areas are matte.  Rondina said that she would try not to repeat the same design twice on a bowl, if that is even possible!  This piece is extraordinary.  The bowl was traditionally fired and it is signed on the bottom “Rondina Huma”.  It is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration, or repair.  Simply breathtaking!

Rondina said of her pottery:

“This style is when I first started designing from the bottom to the top. I would get a bunch of sherds and I would put them together and see what pattern they created. Then I would take back the sherds to where I found them.  I do most of the painting freehand. When I look at a pot, I already know what design I’m going to put on there. I can visualize what I’m going to paint, and it is never the same. I don’t really use a pencil—I’m afraid it won’t come off. I try to just measure with my hand to space out the designs.”  Rondina Huma, Spoken Through Clay