This is an exceptional miniature 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. The shape is a classic water jar with a wide shoulder and an elongated neck.  The jar is highly polished and etched before it was fired.  The design around the shoulder has an old style avanyu (water serpent) alternated with a checkerboard pattern.  Below the shoulder, there is a sun design.  Separating the designs are two inset bands of hematite hei-shi beads.  So, why hematite?  Russell has begun to use it on his recent pieces for several reasons. There is a traditional aspect in that women wear hematite bracelets when they do certain traditional dances at the Pueblo.  There is also hematite content in the clay slips use on the pottery. The jar was traditionally fired (and the hei-shi beads added later) and has a gunmetal coloration to the surface.  The last photos are of the jar being fired.  It started out red, then in the fire and the addition of the manure as the reduction process (to turn it black) and then being taken out of the fire!  It is signed on the bottom in the clay.

Russell Sanchez: Contemporizing the Pueblo Pottery Past