Rondina Huma has certainly been one of the most influential Hopi potters working today.  Since her two-time “Best of Show” awards at Santa Fe Indian Market, her tight style and intricately painted pottery has changed the face of contemporary Hopi pottery.   Each piece is coil-built, fully stone polished, painted with native clays and bee-weed (black), and native-fired.  This fully painted bowl is from the mid-1990s. Rondina said of this style of her pottery:

“This style is when I first started designing from the bottom to the top. I would get a bunch of sherds and I would put them together and see what pattern they created. Then I would take back the sherds to where I found them.  I do most of the painting freehand. When I look at a pot, I already know what design I’m going to put on there. I can visualize what I’m going to paint, and it is never the same. I don’t really use a pencil—I’m afraid it won’t come off. I try to just measure with my hand to space out the designs.”  Rondina Huma, Spoken Through Clay

The bowl has a series of Hopi-Tewda geometrics on the top half.  Note the detail and variety of designs.  Around the shoulder is a linear “mountain pattern”.  Below the shoulder are four panels of design.  Each has different imagery inspired by Hopi pottery shards.  This bowl has an amazing amount of line work!  It was traditionally fired to create blushes on the surface.  The bowl is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Rondina Huma”.  It is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration, or repair.