Steve Lucas is one of the leading Hopi-Tewa potters working today.  Each piece is coil-built, stone polished, painted with native clay slips and bee-weed (black), and traditionally fired.  Steve has won “Best of Show” at Santa Fe Indian Market, and his work remains some of the most refined and creative.  This jar has a rounded shape with a short neck and a slightly turned-out rim.  The jar is painted on the shoulder with bee-weed and four different colors of clay slips.  The design of the jar is inspired by a series of Sikyatki birds. They flow from one section to the next and are highly colorful.  Steve said he surrounded them with cloud and other geometric designs, creating “hidden birds”.  The jar is highly polished and tightly painted.  If you take a closer look, not only does he paint all the different colors, but each area of color is also stone polished!!  WOW!  That is very time-consuming.  The last two photos are of the piece before it was fired and Steve holding the new jar.  The piece was traditionally fired and has a dramatic coloration from the firing.  It is signed on the bottom in the clay, “S. Lucas” and a mudhead (koyemsi) and an ear of corn (corn clan).  It is an innovative design in a classic form.