This is open bowl by Margaret Tafoya is from the 1980’s.  The bowl has high walls and it is fully polished on the inside and carved on the outside.  This is one of the rarest styles of Margaret’s pottery.  The bowl itself has a lower round shoulder and a slightly turned out rim.  What makes it so rare is that she polished the outside red and the inside tan. The tan is created with water, so it is always difficult to polish and create a shine.  Margaret revived this red and tan style in the late 1960’s when she remembered how it was done at Ohkay Owinghe (San Juan Pueblo) from her youth. Today, there are only a few potters who are able to polish tan with such a high shine.  For Margaret, she did very few red and tan pieces, and they are always on very traditional forms.  Traditionally potters would polish the inside of the bowls before firing so that they would be usable.  However, over time this practice decreased as there was a great chance that it would crack in drying or polishing.  The added risk comes from putting all the wet slip on the inside of the bowl and hoping that it doesn’t cause cracks in the exterior.  However, the risk is often worth it as the polished interior of the bowl creates a striking appearance.  It is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Margaret Tafoya”.  It is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration or repair.