WOW!  This is an exceptional new piece by Russell Sanchez.  He continues to be one of the true innovators in Pueblo pottery.  Each piece is perfectly coil-built, stone-polished, and etched.  This jar harkens to some of his earlier sculptural rim pottery, however, this piece has so many creative new additions to his work. First, the story of the jar.  The sculptural rim represents the rain with the four bears out in the rain.  As the jar is turned, there is a matte tan band representing the lightning.  Then there with water from the rain entering the river with the avanyu and a bird.  Finally there is a polished red medallion that is the sun after the rain.  Now to the technical aspects of this piece.  The rim of the jar is polished and the sculptural part combines three layers of clay!  Russell said he added various clays of different colors and then kept adding them so that the rim is about 1/4 inch thick. It’s the thickness of the clay that really adds to the dimension of this piece. The body of the jar is polychrome, using black, red, and white clay slips.  On this part, notice how he has carved very deeply into the clay so that the avanyu, bird, and bears are all in a deeper relief.  Each of the four bears is polished white and outlined with red clay. They have both coral and turquoise inset for the heartlines!  The lightning band is matte tan and has a white polished “rain” band with inset hematite stones.  The avanyu and bird are both polished white, outlined with red clay and inset with stones.  It is the sun that brings the whole piece together with the highly polished rounded red medallion.  There are 15 rays of the sun extending outward with coral insets.  There is also an incised lightning bolt that also extends downward from the surface.  The piece is exciting in design and complex in technical form, with layers of carving, various clays, a traditional firing, and 175 inset stones across the entire surface!   As Russell continues to innovate from historic designs, he says, “Tradition means moving forward and adding to it. You keep moving forward.  If we stayed stagnant, we would no longer exist.”  The jar is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Russell ’24”.  The last photo is of Russell holding the jar for a sense of its size!