This is a large water jar by Daniel Begay.  The piece is coil-built, carved, stone-polished, and traditionally fired. This is a large jar by Daniel Begay.  The piece is coil-built, carved, stone-polished, and traditionally fired.  The piece is entitled, “Grandfather’s Message”.  The jar is an elegant water jar shape with a high shoulder and elongated neck.  The neck of the jar has carved feathers.  Around the body of the piece are carved hummingbirds and swirling wave designs.  Daniel uses both matte and polished areas to accentuate his designs and create his own visual narrative. The style of carving has a beveled appearance to the angle of the cuts into the clay.  The jar is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Daniel Begay”.

“Smoke Screen” is an original and creative idea by Daniel Begay.  It started as a personal challenge to create large vessels and focus on firing them red.  It is usually enough of a challenge to create a series of pieces over ten inches all.  But there is an added complexity to fire them red.  Red pieces are always more difficult to create in Santa Clara pottery as they are more difficult to polish, and the timing for firing is more exact to get just the right coloration and not overfire.  Over the six months he has been making these pieces, he began to evolve his firings as a means to create additional colorations.  The dark red, browns, and dark brown coloration are all created from the firing.  Together, there is a striking visual gradation of colors and an excitement from the size of the pieces.”