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 is a classic wide shoulder bowl. The interior of the bowl is fully polished.  The rim has a series of geometric designs encircling the piece.  Each of the sections is divided by thin lines.  There are two larger Sikyatki birds along with larger panels of geometric shards.  Rondina said that she always tried to never do the same design twice in the same section, or even on the same jar!  The piece is from the early 2000s.  It is signed on the bottom, “Rondina Huma”.  It is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration or repair.  While she no longer makes pottery, her work is iconic in Hopi-Tewa pottery.  

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. The burgundy-colored [areas] are the water migration. It’s like a spring with the water coming up out of the earth and soaking back into the ground. It’s a full cycle, so the square has to be complete. 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