Preston Duwyenie is renowned for his elegant pottery which is often highlighted with silver medallions.  This jar is made from micaceous clay and has a micaceous clay slip on the surface. The result is a spectacular coloration.  There are three sections that are incised into the clay to look like “shifting sand”.  They remain matte in contrast to the micaceous surfaces.  The jar was fired to a slivery-black coloration.  After the firing, Preston inset three silver pieces into the jar.  The silver pieces are cast from cuttlefish bone to create the texture of the “shifting sand”.  It is then inset into the clay and he incises around the shape of the silver.  The bottom is signed with Preston’s hallmark which is a woman carrying a child and his Hopi name, which means “carried in beauty”.   Preston is from Second Mesa at Hopi and taught ceramics for years at the Institute of American Indian Art (IAIA) in Santa Fe.

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”.