This jar by Jody Naranjo is from 2003.  The jar has a low shoulder and sloping sides.  The top is fully polished and the bottom is matte. The area above the horses is polished and fully etched with stars.  Around the center are Jody’s iconic horses etched into the clay.  There are 11 horses and one little foal.  The bottom of the bowl is also fully etched with her star pattern.  Note the background area when the bowl has been etched and the lines she created in the matte area. The jar was fired a brown coloration and then etched with designs.  It is signed, “Jody Naranjo” and it is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration, or repair.

Jody says of her pottery:

“The clay is cathartic. I spend a lot of time carving. That’s my peace. That’s the time I release my energy, any good or bad energy. If I have some issue going on, I focus and the whole world goes away.  I can sit there and build this piece from nothing. It makes me happy. You should do the part you like more. If you like it, you are good at it.  I started carving in the center where the polish didn’t meet and then my polish still looked nice. My carving in the middle was on the matte surface. Before you know it the matte surfaces started getting bigger, and it was less about masking my polishing and more about making my carving larger.  Bigger pieces tend to overwhelm me in the amount of designing I have to do.” Jody Naranjo, Spoken Through Clay