Stunning!  This is an elegant jar by Nancy Youngblood. The shape has a narrow base and a round shoulder. The jar has a lot of surface space.  There are a variety of melon ribs used throughout the piece.  There are her large “S” swirls ribs, along with spiraling rounder ribs, and asymmetric sections.  Each section of the bowl has a different style of rib and they flow together perfectly!  The lid fits onto the jar and there is a swirling circle of ribs on a square shape.  When you step back and look at it, note how the circle on the lid can represent a face with a tablita on her head.  The ribs become the shawls extending down the side of the jar.  The visual variety of the piece combined with the subtly of the Tablita maiden are quite extraordinary!  The jar is highly polished.  Think as well that each of the many ribs on this piece have two sides and the volume of space polished is amazing!  The lid fits perfectly into the rim of the jar.  Nancy has won numerous awards for her melon bowls including Best of Pottery several times at Santa Fe Indian Market, along with Best of Show.  The jar is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Nancy Youngblood”.

Nancy said of this style of her pottery:

In my slant swirl, I carve each rib so that when you look at it, it plays to the light. The light catches the angle of each rib. That’s what I am trying to achieve.
I do that deliberately so that the light is reflected at different angles and at different points across the surface. Lids are so fragile. You have to make it solid and then cut into it to get the shape. Lids are probably some of the hardest things to do with the pottery.” Nancy Youngblood, Spoken Through Clay