Some of the best American collectibles are not only made in the US, but are made by the First Peoples. Among these is the pottery made at the Santa Clara and San Ildefonso Pueblos in the southwest.
Since the mid-Twentieth Century, Santa Clara and San Ildefonso Pueblos have been known for the beautiful black pottery created there. The pots come in black and dark red and are made from the same clay. The difference is in whether oxygen is allowed into the firing process. The red results if oxygen is present, and the black if the firing is conducted without oxygen in the firing chamber.
The Santa Clara and San Ildefonso pottery can have either thin walls and some with thick walls. The thin walled pottery is generally decorated with a black on black decoration, shiny and matte black providing the decoration. Some of the pots are shiny black all over, having been polished with a fine-grained stone all over, once the pottery is leather hard. The same technique is used on the terra cotta pottery to make red on red pots.
The thicker walled pots are made so that the walls of the pot can be carved with wavy lines, small dots and other forms of decoration. These pots may also be polished in part or in whole to make the surface shine. Integral handles arch over the pot on some, as a handle for functional use as well as aesthetic reasons.
One of the most famous Twentieth Century Santa Clara potters is Marie Martinez, from the Santa Clara Pueblo. She passed on her pottery techniques to many other potters, and there are even more potters today. The pots are built using the traditional coil method, made smooth to the touch and the eye by the efforts of the potter. With the color on color finish, these pots have a more subtle effect than much of Native American pottery. Once you have seen it, you can identify it when you see it again. These days the Santa Clara and San Ildefonso potters sign their work, although the use of the pueblo name in the signature is less common that at other Southwestern pueblos.
Not all black on black pottery comes from the New Mexican pueblos. The Mata Ortiz potters, newly developing their talent and use of materials in northern Mexico, also create black on black pottery. These pots are more eccentric in their shapes, and the decoration is often at least in part a grid where tiny shiny and matte squares alternate. But more about the Mata Ortiz later.
The Twentieth Century pottery from the San Ildefonso and Santa Clara Pueblos can be found in most major collections of Native American pottery, but also still available on the market for those who enjoy its sensuous look and feel.
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