This is an intricately designed new seedpot by Jennifer Tafoya.    She is known for her clay vessels and also her amazing animal figures and for this show, they are animals from the “Ice Age”!  This piece is fully polished and fully designed.  It has a square shape and a short neck.  The top of the rim has a star pattern.  On the sides are two Saber Tooth Tigers.  Each is different in design and highly detailed.  Separating them is a band of eagle feathers and a band of Saber Tooth Tiger tracks.  They are surrounded by traditional Santa Clara designs.  Jennifer continues to not just be creative in design, but in technique.  All the various colors are derived from natural clay slips.  The piece is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Jennifer Tafoya”.

“Saber-toothed cats, with their long, daggerlike canines protruding from the sides of their mouths, are one of the most iconic “Ice Age” mammals in North America. Many people think of the “saber-toothed tiger,” but many species of saber-toothed cats have lived during the past 40 million years. Indeed, the modern world is unusual in not having a saber-tooth among its large cats, because in the past they were normal members of mammal communities. The most recent group of saber-tooths are the machairodonts, and it is these that have been found as fossils in eastern North America.”