WOW!  This is an exceptional jar by Steve Lucas.  He remains one of the leading Hopi-Tewa potters working today.  Each piece is coil-built, stone polished, painted with native clay slips and bee-weed (black), and traditionally fired.  Steve has won “Best of Show” at Santa Fe Indian Market, and his work remains some of the most refined and creative.  This jar has a round shoulder and a sloping side.  The piece is painted with bee-weed (black) and different clay slips. There are four moths as the design. They are highlighted with brown, red, and green clay slips.  All the various colors are also stone polished into the clay.  Separating the moths are bird tails.  Around the shoulder are moth wing designs.  The jar is tightly painted and colorful.  What you can’t see is that it is VERY thin walled!  The jar was traditionally fired to create blushes on the surface of the piece.  It is signed on the bottom in the clay, “S. Lucas” and a mudhead (koyemsi) and an ear of corn (corn clan).  It is an innovative design in a classic form.

“When I first learned to make pottery, the red slip painted in the designs was difficult to work with. It wouldn’t take heat very well and would scorch and turn black. The red was also difficult to polish. My aunt Dextra had a deep red clay slip, so I experimented with it. I took some of our base clay and added the red to it, and it polished very well. I then decided to put some mica in there to get that sparkle. That’s where the new red came from, and Dextra liked how it turned out. I introduced them to that. It was nice that for my teacher, Dextra, I was able to share and teach her something.”  Steve Lucas, Spoken Through Clay