WOW!  This is a MASSIVE jar by Susie Crank.  Few potters make pieces this size as they are difficult to fire and often crack in the process.  When one is completed with this skill, it is visually striking in person!  She is a daughter of Rose Williams and a sister of Alice Cling.  Each piece is coil built, stone polished, and amazingly, she says he may burnish a piece over and over as many as 15 times to get a high shine!  The shape is often referred to as a “drum pot”.  It has a high shoulder and straight sides.  The jar is very highly polished, and around the neck is a single raised bands with angular mountain designs.  There is an open space in the designs, which is the “spirit line” or “doorway”.  It is a very traditional style of Navajo vessel.  The jar is traditionally fired to create fire clouds on the surface.  The colorations on this jar range from black to deep red and the inside is tan (the natural color of the clay).  The jar was covered in pinon-pitch after the firing, a continuation of the traditional Navajo pottery when the pitch was used to make the pottery waterproof.  Today, the pitch seals the vessel and gives it an additional shine.  This jar has a stunning shine and a great feel to the surface!  It is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Susie Crank”.