Stunning!  This is a very detailed canteen by Nancy Youngblood.  The canteen is carved with a large spiral on one side and a “waterfall” of eight bands of “s” swirl ribs.  The large spiral is inspired by a shell and it is very deeply carved and fully polished. The “waterfall” side has very tightly carved ribs and the back and forth motion of them is striking!  Separating them are polished handles and near the base are carved “wave” ribs.  The “waves” are the delicately carved ribs on the sides of the piece.  Note how they even extend down to the base.  The entire piece is fully polished and fired a glassy black.  Very fully designed for the size!  The canteen has a lid which she also carved and she braided the strap. It is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Nancy Youngblood”.  The last photo is the canteen in the fire!

The swirl starts with the rib on the right, then it goes to the left, to the right, to the left, to the right, to the left, to the right, and finally to the left. It’s three times on the right and three times on the left. It is extremely difficult to polish because you are moving your
hand right to left to right to left to right to left as quickly as you can. Then you have to flip the pot over and do it the opposite way. When I polish a piece like this, I can only do three ribs, and then I leave two unpolished and I do the single ribs at the end. I like to be able to focus on the final single ribs.  Nancy Youngblood, Spoken Through Clay