Pueblo Pottery
Pueblo Pottery from award winning Southwest Potters

Traditional Southwest Native American Pueblo Pottery is entirely handmade... that includes
sifting the clay, making the natural dyes, making the yucca brushes,
and making the slip to finish the pottery.

click to enter pueblo pottery gallery

More About Pueblo Pottery

Pueblo Indian Potters use clay they gather themselves, usually from sacred tribal land.
They sift and clean the clay as they've done for centuries.

Some potters use commercial, ceramic molds (also called cast, slip-cast or greenware).
Pots like this have little to no collector value. We do NOT sell greenware pottery.
Greenware should be bought for decorative purposes only.

The pottery we sell is from established Pueblo potters and is entirely made by hand
 in the traditional (hand-coiled) way. The ancient process of making coiled pottery
begins with the artist gathering clay, plants, minerals, and shards of
broken pottery from the reservation.

The clay is then cleaned and soaked.

  Paints, dyes and brushes are made from local plants.

In most pueblo pottery are old pottery shards, ground down and mixed with the clay.
The shards act as a temper or grout and help prevent the new pot from shrinking
 or cracking during the drying process. Also, old pottery shards provide an
 important spiritual connection to the past.

The clay is rolled and coiled to form the new pot.

After the pot is shaped, a slip (a fine sand or clay mixture) is applied.

The pot is now polished, painted and fired. Some potters fire in kilns others use
traditional, outside adobe ovens or open fires.

Collectable Pueblo Pottery is meant for display only.  Do not clean or use this pottery.

click to enter pueblo pottery gallery

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