WOW!  This is a striking polychrome carved and incised jar by Russell Sanchez.   He continues to be one of the true innovators and revivalists in Pueblo pottery.  Each piece is perfectly coil built, stone polished, and etched.  This jar has a round body and a long neck.  The body of the jar is slipped white and etched with a Pueblo bird, snake, and sun design.  They are etched into the clay before they are fired.  Russell then adds the clay colors of black and red to the piece in the incised areas.  This is very time-consuming and exacting so that he doesn’t get any of the clay slip on the white polished area! The neck is polished red and incised with a mountain design. The mountains are slipped with a matte red clay that has an almost orange coloration.  It is very striking in contrast.  The jar has inset turquoise and brass hei-shi beads.  The lid is polished red and black matte.  There are inset turquoise and brass hei-shi beads.  There is a lot of time and risk that goes into Russell’s polychrome pottery before they are even fired!  All the clays Russell is using are the same as those used in San Ildefonso pottery from the 1880s to about 1920.  His deep red slip is a more recent addition to his clay art starting around 2005.  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 bowl is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Russell”.  It is exciting to see how this imagery is not new but Russell’s reinterpretation of it both modernizes and revives.