Preston Duwyenie is known for his Hopi pottery which blends modern and traditional aspects of the art. This jar is made from a white clay which he finds near Second Mesa at Hopi.  The shape has a wide shoulder and an asymmetric neck. The entire jar is matte.  There is a band around the shoulder which has the shifting sand design is carved into the clay.  What makes the “sand” area so fascinating is how Preston carves it so that it has a very natural appearance. The entire surface is the sand design, with a single section in which he has inset a piece of silver. The silver inset is cast from cuttle-fish bone (a type of squid).  The casting creates a similar style of ‘shifting sand’ design to complement the clay areas!  The thin walls of the bowl, the organic feel of the shifting sand and the strength of the silver insets are elegant on this piece.  The piece is signed on the bottom with is hallmark signed on the bottom in the clay with Preston’s hallmark which is a woman carrying a child and his Hopi name, which means “carried in beauty”.   Preston is from Third Mesa at Hopi and taught ceramics for years at 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”.