This is a classic carved jar by Teresita Naranjo.  Teresita was a daughter of Christina Naranjo and know for her deeply carved pottery.   Each piece was coil built, carved, stone polished, and traditionally fired.  This jar is larger in size and deeply carved.  It has a water serpent carved into the surface of the piece.  It encircles the entire jar.  Note the carving into the negative space towards the neck.  Teresita was one of the first potters to create negative space carving on he Pueblo pottery.  The jar is from the 1970s.  It is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration, or repairs.  It is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Teresita Naranjo”.  It is easy to see how her great-niece Tammy Garcia was inspired by this work of her great-aunt!

“Some of my pieces of pottery are polished inside as well as outside. When we do wrong, we are like my pieces of pottery that I leave rough inside. Even if we polish ourselves outside, we stay rough inside. All my pottery is fired in an open fire, which determines the color. I really do enjoy making pottery, for I know God has given me this talent and the patience to do it.”  —Teresita Naranjo, Spoken Through Clay