This is a deeply carved red small storage jar by Nathan Youngblood.  The jar has a round shoulder and a sloping neck.  The neck is polished red.  The jar has a band of deeply carved “walking bear paws”.  This is a design that is often associated with his grandmother, Margaret Tafoya.  Below that band is a series of rain, cloud, and wind designs encircling the jar. The imagery flows across the surface with lots of rounded and contrasting angular edges!  The jar is fully polished red.  There are small additional lightning and deer track designs etched into the clay.  The pieces traditionally fired a deep red.  On Nathan’s redware pieces, after they are fired, he uses screwdrivers to scrape the background area and the side of the carving.  This can take almost as much time as carving or polishing itself!  Amazing the amount of time that goes into each vessel and yet how stunning they appear!  It is signed on the bottom in the clay with his name and hallmarked name in Tewa, which means “Deer Path”.