This is a wide shoulder jar by Preston Duwyenie.  It is made from red Hopi clay.  It is matte and the shoulder of the jar is carved in a natural manner to represent the sand in the desert and its constant movement.  The “sand” sections are matte, which creates a great overall texture.  There is one inset piece of silver, which has an additional “shifting sand” pattern.  The silver is cast against cuttle-fish bone (a type of squid).  This process creates a similar style of shifting sand design to complement the clay.  The jar is signed on the bottom in the clay with Preston’s hallmark which is a woman carrying a child as the hallmark for his name in Hopi.  Preston is from Third 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”.