This large storage jar is one of the styles for which Margaret Tafoya is most famous.  While her mother, Sarafina Tafoya created more cylindrical storage jars, Margaret rounded out the shape for her own distinctive style.  They would only be made in the summer when there was enough warmth for them to dry.  Amazingly, it typically took three people to stone polish the surface, as the jar had to be polished at one time over several hours.  It was the storage jar for which Margaret won “Best of Show” at Santa Fe Indian Market two years in a row (1978 & 1979).   This large storage jar is from the late 1960s.  The previous owner said that when she bought it from Margaret she drove it back to Arizona in the passenger seat of her car!  The jar is round and fully polished.  There are the classic impressed bear paws on the shoulder of the jar. This jar is signed on the bottom, “Margaret Tafoya”.  It was featured in the book, ‘Born of Fire” on page 76.  There is a photo of it in the book, along with a photo of it as part of the grouping of pieces in the book for scale.  The last photo is one of Margaret making one of her storage jars.  It is in a “puki” or base where they are started and then it is very slowly coil built.  This is definitely a piece of history in clay!

“I remember her making the storage jars. It takes three or four people to polish them and a whole truckload of manure to make them black outside where they are fired.”  Toni Roller, Spoken Through Clay