This is a tall carved water jar by Margaret Tafoya.  It is from the 1960s. The jar is coil-built and carved around the shoulder. The neck and base are fully polished. The carved band has mountain and lightning designs.  The carving on the jar is deep and angular. It is this style of carving for which Margaret was known. The jar is highly polished and fired a deep black coloration.  The jar is signed in the clay on the bottom, “Margaret”.  This is how she signed her pieces in the late 1950s and 1960s.  It is in very good condition with no chips, cracks, restoration, or repair.  Iconic in shape, design, and coloration. 

“If you feel like working with clay, Mother Clay is always willing to help you. If you don’t feel like working with it, Mother Clay knows it—what is in your heart—that today you don’t feel like doing the work and so it won’t work. It won’t come out good. Every time you gonna take the clay you have to talk to Mother Clay [and think] how she has carried our people from so many many years back.” —Margaret Tafoya, 1986, Spoken Through Clay