Christopher Youngblood creates intricately carved vessels that reflect a perfect balance of matte and polished surfaces with intricately carved designs.  This jar is carved is deeply carved and highly polished making it a gem in clay!  The jar has two flowers as the design.  Each flower has the individual petals carved and polished!  They are surrounded by swirling cloud and water designs that extend up from the base of the piece.  Note how each of the various sections has a different style of the melon ribs to create the design!  The spirals are exceptional as they have sharper edges and the polishing creates various surfaces on which the light reflects.  The polishing on the jar is exceptional, with a glass-like surface.  The piece was traditionally fired a deep black.  It is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Chris Youngblood”.  I’m pleased that I have been working with Chris since 2010 when I wrote the first article on him for Native People’s magazine.  It is exciting to see how his work has progressed over the years and the awards for his pottery.  He was featured in the book, Spoken Through Clay, and continues to be one of the leading young potters working today.

Chris has said of his pottery:

“I’ve had generations of people before me who have had to learn the hard way. I’ve had that information given to me without having to go through all the struggles. But, I would say on the flip side, having someone so technically advanced as your teacher (Nancy Youngblood), let alone your mother, it’s hard. The expectations are a lot higher.  I’ve learned that now, I never think it’s done. I keep going until I cannot find anything I can refine or add to the piece. To achieve an ever-higher level of precision takes a lifetime. ’s not something you learn, it’s something you live.”  Christopher Youngblood, Spoken Through Clay