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.  There is a large hummingbird painted on each side and each one is different in design and flow of the feathers or turn of the head.  They are spiraling in form with wings extended backward and painted with bee-weed (black).  They are each highlighted with green, red, white, or brown clay slips.  If you take a closer look, not only does he paint all the different colors, but each area of color is also stone polished!!  Separating each bird is a plant, each with green slipped leaves.  The rim of the jar has a white clay cloud pattern.  Amazingly, Steve has five different colors on this jar!  The result is not just an exceptional painting, but a colorful and creative vessel.  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.

“When I first learned to make pottery, the red slip painted in the designs was difficult to work with. It wouldn’t take heat very well and would scorch and turn black. The red was also difficult to polish. My aunt Dextra had a deep red color clay slip, and I decided to experiment with it. I took some of our base clay and added the red to it and it polished very well. I then decided to put some mica in there to get that sparkle. That’s where the new red came from, and Dextra liked how it turned out. I introduced them to that. It was nice that for my teacher, Dextra, I was able to share and teach her something.”  Steve Lucas, Spoken Through Clay