Stunning!  This is a very detailed large canteen by Nancy Youngblood.  The canteen has sixteen deeply carved melon ribs around the neck of the piece. There are two large medallions. One side has an avanyu, while the other has four shells.  Each of the shells is deeply carved and the edges are rounded out!  Around the side of the canteen are deeply carved melon ribs.  The handles are also fully polished.  The piece is fired a deep black in coloration.  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 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