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 and 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 also polish the inside of all my pottery. People ask how I do it and how I can get so deep inside. I just think it makes a bowl look nicer if it is fully polished.  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  star pattern on the top.  It is tightly painted with a lot of lines.  There is a band of polished red and then her classic “mountain” design with interlocking triangles.  Around the body of the bowl are panels with Hopi-Tewa designs.  They are separated by sections of the interlocking mountain (triangle) design. This bowl has an amazing amount of line work!  The inside is also fully polished.  It was traditionally fired to create the blushes on the surface.  The bowl is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Rondina Huma”.  It is in very good condition with no chips, cracks, restoration, or repair.  A great size piece with exceptional painting!