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 two pueblo-style birds.  This style of bird was seen on San Ildefonso pottery in the late 1800s.  They are separated by a plant design and they are each holding onto a snake.  The designs 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 checkerboard design. There are two inset bands of bronze hei-shi beads.  The base is polished black and inset with a single band of jet hei-shi. There are turquoise stones in the bodies of the birds and for their eyes.  The lid has twelve inset stones in a matte red surface.  The handle of the lid is polished black. 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.