Nancy Youngblood is renowned for her deeply carved and highly polished pottery.  This is one of the first times we have had this style from her.  The small jar has 16 very deeply carved ribs.  Each rib is rounded out on the end, near the neck.  Note the depth and polishing of each rib!  Then on the inside of the rim there are eight rounded “ribs” that are also polished. It is amazing that she can polish on the inside of the neck and not have it chip!  The real “surprise” of the jar is in the matte area on the outside of the jar.  Note how she has indented each small section with a “gourd” rounded indention.  I really like how they are subtle but it is her attention to the little details that is always so exceptional.  They bring together the inside rim polishing and the outside larger ribs.  It is quite spectacular in person!  The piece is fired a deep black.  It is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Nancy Youngblood”.  Nancy has won numerous awards for her melon bowls and this is undoubtedly a classic of her style!

Technically it’s really hard to keep the little end of the rib at the top and the very bottom even and not break.  That’s my style of lid with the round top. My grandmother [Margaret Tafoya] used to do those on a larger scale years ago, but when she got to be in her late seventies she stopped doing that kind of lid. It was tough to do. My lids are different from most other potters’ lids. Some people do “floaters”; my grandmother did that a lot of times. I always like to fit the lid into the piece. That is the hardest thing to do. I fire the lid with the piece.” Nancy Youngblood, Spoken Through Clay