Sahmie, Ida – Water Jar with Corn & Wedding Baskets (1996)

6"w x 6"h

$ 800.00

Ida Sahmie is known for her modernist Navajo pottery using bee-weed to paint, etching the surface and utilizing native clay from the Navajo Nation.  This water jar has a round shoulder and a slightly turned out neck. The piece is fully polished and painted with bee-weed (black) and natural clay slips.  Around the rim of the jar are mountain designs along with rain lines.  The shoulder and neck of the jar are incised with corn plants.  Each plant is then painted in four different colors representing the Four Directions.  Separating each of the corn plants is a Navajo wedding basket.  Each basket is also etched into the clay and then painted.  The jar is traditionally fired near her home. There are very light blushes on the surface.   Ida is a daughter-in-law of Priscilla Nampeyo.  She has won numerous awards for her pottery at events such as Santa Fe Indian Market.  She is the only Navajo potter creating this unique style of ethnographic pottery.  It is signed on the bottom.  It is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration or repair.