This is a small shifting sand plate by Preston Duwyenie.  It is made from red Hopi clay found near Third Mesa at Hopi.  The clay has a tannish-red appearance.  The back of the plate is polished and the front is carved to have the appearance of shifting sand.  There are EIGHTEEN narrow rows of the shifting sand design, which change as the piece is turned and their shadows are cast.  There is a single inset piece of coral within the bands of the sand design.  The plate is signed on the back in the clay with Preston’s hallmark, which is a woman carrying a child, as the hallmark for his name in Hopi.

“Why the shifting sand designs? Preston says he remembers watching a smooth pebble caught in sand being shifted by the wind, “there was beauty in its isolation within the sea of sand. It was like an island.  The endless sands of time, and the fact that people, too are tossed about by the wind. There is always rippling in our lives”.