This is a mini polychrome plate by Russell Sanchez.   He continues to be one of the true innovators and revivalists in Pueblo pottery.  Each piece is perfectly coil-built, stone-polished, and etched.  This plate is fully polished white on the front with a red polished rim.  There is a single inset band of hematite hei-shi beads.  There is an incised bear in the center.  The bear has two inset pieces of turquoise.  There are also 31 TINY turquoise stones inset around the edge of the white. The back of the plate is micaceous.  Russell’s polychrome pottery is inspired by the San Ildefonso polychrome pottery from around 1900, which was derived from natural clays (black/red/white) and used many of the same clays!  The colorations of black, red, and white are all seen in San Ildefonso pottery from the 1880s to about 1920.  His deep red clay is another recent addition to his clay art, which started around 2005.  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 bowl is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Russell”.  It is exciting to see how this imagery is not new, but Russell’s reinterpretation of it both modernizes and revives.