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Title: Pueblo pottery making;: a study at the village of San Ildefonso
Author: Guthe, Carl E. (Carl Eugen)
Language: English
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PAPERS OF THE SOUTHWESTERN EXPEDITION
NUMBER TWO
PUEBLO POTTERY MAKING
[Illustration: PLATE 1
_Courtesy Wesley Bradfield_
MARIA MARTINEZ
The most skillful potter of San Ildefonso.]
DEPARTMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY
PHILLIPS ACADEMY · ANDOVER · MASSACHUSETTS
PUEBLO POTTERY MAKING
A STUDY AT THE VILLAGE OF SAN ILDEFONSO
BY
CARL E. GUTHE
[Illustration]
NEW HAVEN
PUBLISHED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY
PHILLIPS ACADEMY · ANDOVER · MASSACHUSETTS
BY THE YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1925
COPYRIGHTED 1925 BY YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BY THE ANDOVER PRESS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION 1
RAW MATERIALS; COLLECTION AND PREPARATION 19
INGREDIENTS 19
RED CLAY 19
WHITE CLAY 21
TEMPER 21
COOKING VESSEL CLAY 22
SLIPS AND PAINTS 23
NATIVE SLIP 23
SANTO DOMINGO SLIP 23
RED SLIP 23
ORANGE-RED SLIP 24
BLACK WARE PAINT 24
BLACK OR GUACO PAINT 25
FUEL 26
MANURE 26
KINDLING 26
PARAPHERNALIA 27
PRIMARY PARAPHERNALIA 27
MOULDS 27
MOULDING SPOONS 27
SCRAPERS 27
POLISHING STONES 27
PAINT BRUSHES 28
SECONDARY PARAPHERNALIA 29
CARRYING AND STORING RECEPTACLES 29
MIXING SURFACES 29
BOARDS 29
WATER CONTAINERS 29
MOPS 30
PAINT RECEPTACLES 30
WIPING-RAGS 30
FIRING ACCESSORIES 30
MOULDING 31
BOWLS 37
OLLAS 42
COOKING-VESSELS 46
PRAYER-MEAL BOWLS 48
DOUBLE-MOUTHED VASES 49
HANDLES 50
SUN-DRYING 52
SCRAPING 54
SLIPPING AND POLISHING 57
WHITE SLIP 57
ORANGE-RED SLIP 59
RED SLIP 59
DARK-RED SLIP 62
PAINTING 66
FIRING 70
PREPARATION 70
BUILDING THE OVEN 70
BURNING 72
ACCIDENTS 76
TREATMENT AFTER BURNING 77
PAINTING OF DESIGNS 78
SYMBOLISM 85
BIBLIOGRAPHY 89
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATES
PAGE
1. Maria Martinez, the leading potter of San Ildefonso _Frontispiece_
2. Fragments of ancient corrugated wares 6
3. Old decorated vessels from the Pueblo villages 8
4. Old San Ildefonso vessels 8
5. Old San Ildefonso vessels 10
6. Modern polychrome ware by Maria Martinez 10
7. Modern polychrome and black-on-red wares 12
8. Modern plain and decorated polished black ware 14
9. Winnowing clay 16
10. _a_, Digging tempering material, _b_, Guaco plant 20
11. Gourd spoons 26
12. _a_, Kneading clay _b_, Primary stages of bowl moulding 32
13. Method of building vessels 32
14. _a_, Work on rim of unfinished bowl, _b_, Shaping vessel 36
15. Successive stages in the moulding of an olla 42
16. _a_, Moulding an olla, _b_, A typical potter 44
17. _a_, Finishing touches, _b_, Application of handle 46
18. Sun-drying 52
19. Scraping 54
20. _a_, Cutting down an olla _b_, Applying slip 58
21. _a_, Applying slip, _b_, _c_, Polishing 60
22. Decorating small vessels 66
23. Decorating ollas 68
24. _a_, Drying the oven site, _b_, Preparing the oven 70
25. Oven-building 72
26. Firing 72
27. _a_, Smothered fire, _b_, Wiping fired vessels 74
28. Zuñi potter preparing clay 76
29. Zuñi potter moulding a vessel 76
30. Zuñi potter finishing a vessel 76
31. Zuñi potter decorating and firing a vessel 76
32. Design by Maria Martinez 81
33. Design by Maria Martinez 82
34. Design by Maximiliana Martinez 82
35. Design by Antonita Roybal 84
FIGURES IN THE TEXT
1. Outlines of post-Basket Maker vessels 6
2. Pre-Pueblo pottery 7
3. Decorations of ancient Pueblo bowls 9
4. Bad examples of modern pottery 13
5. Paint brushes 28
6. Sections of a bowl during building 34
7. Method of terracing a prayer-meal bowl 48
8. Angles of paint brush during stroke 68
9. Growth of a polychrome design 80
10. Raincloud design 83
11. Elements of design 87
INTRODUCTION
The present paper is a careful study by Dr. Guthe of pottery making at
San Ildefonso, a typical Pueblo Indian town on the Rio Grande, north of
Santa Fe, New Mexico. The field-work was undertaken in 1921 as part of
an archaeological survey of the Southwest, that has been carried on for
a number of years by the Department of Archaeology of Phillips Academy.
From prehistoric archaeology to modern pottery making may seem a far
cry, but in the Southwest the past merges almost imperceptibly into the
present, and the Pueblos of today live in almost exactly the same way,
and practise almost exactly the same arts, as did their ancestors of a
thousand years ago. In the Southwest, therefore, the archaeologist has
the invaluable opportunity of observing, and of studying at first hand,
the life whose earlier remains he unearths from the ancient ruins. When
one considers what such a privilege would mean to the excavator in, for
example, the mounds of the Mississippi Valley, or the Neolithic
village-sites of Europe, it becomes obvious that the Southwestern
archaeologist should devote a not inconsiderable part of his time to the
study of that industrious, kindly, hospitable, and thoroughly charming
folk, the Pueblo Indians.
Living a sedentary, agricultural life in an arid country it was
inevitable that the Pueblos should early have developed into expert and
prolific potters; and so pottery, in the form of sherds scattered about
their former dwellings, and of vessels piously interred with their dead,
is the most striking, the most abundant, and the most readily accessible
form of evidence to be dealt with by the Southwestern archaeologist. The
value of pottery to the student of the past cannot be more happily
expressed than in the words of the historian Myres: “When with the soft
clay which has, so to say, no natural shape or utility at all, the human
hand, guided by imagination, but otherwise unaided, creates a new form,
gourd-like, or flask-like, or stone-bowl-like, but not itself either
gourd, or skin, or stone, then invention has begun, and an art is born
which demands on each occasion of its exercise a fresh effort of
imagination to devise, and of intellect to give effect to, a literally
new thing. It is a fortunate accident that the material in question,
once fixed in the given form by exposure to fire, is by that very
process made so brittle that its prospect of utility is short;
consequently the demand for replacement is persistent. The only group of
industries which can compare with potmaking in intellectual importance
is that of the textile fabrics; basketry and weaving. But whereas
basket-work and all forms of matting and cloth are perishable and will
burn, broken pottery is almost indestructible, just because, once
broken, it is so useless. It follows that evidence so permanent, so
copious, and so plastic, that is to say so infinitely sensitive a
register of the changes of the artist’s mood, as the potsherds on an
ancient site, is among the most valuable that we can ever have, for
tracing the dawn of culture.”
Myres wrote of arid Egypt, and in many ways conditions in the likewise
arid Southwest, where a primitive people were also building up for
themselves through agriculture a new type of civilization, closely
parallel those of the Nile Valley in predynastic times. And the
analogy, naturally enough, holds good in the matter of archaeological
methods. The rise and spread of the predynastic cultures of Egypt are
being traced out in large part by studies of ceramic types and of their
stratigraphic relation one to another. The same methods are applicable,
and indeed are now beginning to be applied, to the problems of the
Southwest.
To understand the trend of recent archaeological work in the Pueblo
field it is necessary to take a bird’s-eye view, so to speak, of the
region. Over a vast area in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and the
state of Chihuahua in Old Mexico, are found the remains of the
prehistoric Pueblos. Their villages, now in ruins, were built in all
sorts of places, on the tops of mesas, in open plains, in narrow
canyons, on the ledges of great cliffs, and in the shelter of caves.
They range in size from one-or two-room houses of the roughest
construction, to great communal buildings of five hundred or even a
thousand rooms, compactly built of excellent masonry and terraced to a
height of three, four, or five stories. The artifacts, too, found in
them vary bewilderingly, both in degree of perfection, and in type. All
Southwestern houses, however, and all Southwestern artifacts, have a
certain family resemblance that allies them to each other and makes it
evident that they are all the product of a single culture, a culture
distinct, for example, from that of Central Mexico or that of the
Mississippi Valley. To reconstruct the history of that culture, to trace
its origin, to follow its growth, and to explain how and why it
developed in the peculiar way it did, are the tasks which confront the
Southwestern archaeologist.
As in any scientific problem, the first step must be to collect and
classify the data; and although Pueblo sites are numbered in thousands,
and an overwhelming amount of merely descriptive work must still be
done, the outlines of a classification have been achieved. We know, for
example, what sort of ruins are found in the San Juan drainage of
northern New Mexico; what kinds of pottery occur along the Gila river in
southern Arizona. But what relationship, genetically and in time, there
existed between, say, Pueblo Bonito and Casa Grande, we do not know. The
time element, or in other words the historical sequence of our material,
remains in large part to be determined.
To set up an historical outline we must first determine the relative
ages of the different ruins, and then estimate the size and distribution
of the Pueblo tribes from the earliest times to the present. At the top,
so to speak, of our series the problem is simple enough--we are
acquainted with the present location of the tribes, and the various
Spanish accounts tell us where they have been living during the past
three hundred and fifty years. But for the prehistoric period (and
everything in the Southwest prior to 1540 is prehistoric) we must rely
almost wholly on such evidence as may be turned up by the
archaeologist’s shovel, for of native written records there are none,
nor can native legendary testimony be safely depended upon. This, of
course, throws a heavy burden upon the archaeologist, a burden which is
made heavier by the fact that stratigraphy of remains is so rarely found
in the Pueblo country.
Stratigraphy, in other words the superposition of the more recent upon
the more ancient, has been the Open Sesame to all the reconstructive
sciences. The very framework of geology, for example, has been built up
from stratigraphic observations. In archaeology, too, stratigraphy has
revealed the sequence of the Stone Ages; made clear the development of
the early Mediterranean cultures, and the rise of predynastic
civilization in Egypt. Therefore, as has just been said, the general
lack of stratigraphic conditions in the Southwest renders the task of
the student a particularly hard one. For some reason, not yet clearly
understood, the Pueblos ancient and modern were very prone to shift from
one dwelling place to another, and a site once abandoned was seldom
reoccupied. Although their houses were of the most permanent
construction, and their agricultural life should have tended to render
them solidly sedentary, they moved about to a surprising extent. The
result of this is that one seldom finds a ruin which was lived in for
more than a few decades or, at most, centuries; and few have so far been
discovered to contain superimposed remains illustrating any long period
of development. Where such evidence is so rare, what can be found
naturally becomes of the greatest importance; hence the recent diligent
search for, and excavation of, such sites as show signs of long
occupancy.
The choice of Pecos for investigation by Phillips Academy was due to the
above considerations. The ruin was a large one, was occupied at the time
of the Discovery and was not abandoned until 1838. A surface examination
also showed that it must have been tenanted for a long time prior to the
Conquest because its mounds were scattered over with potsherds not only
of recent date, but also of several distinct prehistoric types, each one
well enough known to students, but whose relative ages were entirely a
matter of conjecture. It was hoped, therefore, that excavation might
disclose some definite cases of superposition, and that several
prehistoric periods might thereby be arranged in their proper
chronological order.[1]
The results have been more than satisfactory. Pecos proved to have been
built on the edge of a sharp-sided mesa, a fact not suspected before
digging began, because the rubbish from the town had heaped up to such
an extent against the original cliff as completely to mask its
steepness. The first inhabitants naturally threw their refuse over the
edge of the mesa, their descendants added to the accumulation, and the
process continued down the centuries until there grew up a midden of
enormous extent and, for the Southwest, of unusually great depth. It is
stratified as neatly as a layer-cake.
When the exploratory trenches revealed the size and probable importance
of the Pecos rubbish heap, all other projects were postponed, and two
full field-seasons were devoted to the meticulous dissection of large
areas of the deepest deposit. At frequent intervals stratigraphic tests
were made, in which all the specimens from each successive stratum were
kept separate and shipped to the Museum for study. It was found that
many changes in culture had taken place during the long occupancy of
Pecos; in the stone and bone implements, in the pipes, and in burial
customs. But the most abundant, the most easily gathered, and the most
readily interpreted evidence of cultural change was offered by the
thousands of pottery fragments that filled the mound from subsoil to
surface.
We have been able to recognize about twenty distinct wares, to arrange
them into eight chronological groups, and to determine the exact
sequence of these groups. This information, derived from the
stratigraphic study of the pottery in the mounds, has been of the
greatest value. Its application has been both local and non-local. In
the excavations that we have since carried on at Pecos it has enabled us
to date relatively to each other the various kivas, cemeteries, and
small refuse mounds that occurred on the mesa top, and also to unravel
much more confidently than we would otherwise have been able to do, the
extraordinarily complex jumble of ruined, torn-down, stone-robbed,
rebuilt, abandoned, and reoccupied rooms that we encountered when we
attacked the pueblo itself. As helpful as has been the knowledge of the
sequence of the pottery types in working out the details of local
archaeology, its usefulness in that regard is small as compared with the
flood of light which has been thrown on much larger and more vital
problems. It has just been stated that some twenty types of pottery were
identified; the majority of these are not peculiar to Pecos; many of
them occur throughout large areas in the Rio Grande drainage; and so we
are now able, in most cases by a hasty examination of the surface
sherds, to assign to its proper place in the chronological series any
ruin at which our types are present. Thus mere reconnaissance (a cheap
and rapid undertaking) now serves to make clear the major outlines of
Rio Grande archaeology. But the usefulness of the stratigraphic studies
at Pecos does not end with the territory in which the Pecos types of
pottery are found, for Pecos, because of its size and because of its
situation on the main route between the Pueblo country to the West and
the buffalo ranges to the East, was an important trade centre.
From its mounds we have taken potsherds from almost all parts of the
Southwest, shells from the Pacific, spindle-whorls from Central Mexico,
as well as pottery and stone objects from the Mississippi drainage. The
importance of such finds is evident; every sherd from an outside culture
found in a datable stratum at Pecos helps to fit into our general
chronological scheme the culture from which it came; as conversely, does
every Pecos or even Rio Grande sherd that turns up beyond the limits of
the Rio Grande. Only a start has been made, but enough has already come
to light at Pecos and at such stratified sites as have been excavated by
other institutions, to provide us with a surprisingly full knowledge of
the rise and growth of the Pueblo civilization. Ten years ago it would
have been hard to believe how much could be accomplished by the
stratigraphic work carried on by Nelson in the Galisteo Basin, Hodge at
Hawikuh, Judd at Pueblo Bonito, Morris at Aztec, Guernsey in the Kayenta
country, and the writer and his associates at Pecos.
The work, as I have said, has just begun, but the prospects are bright.
Success will depend, as in any such endeavor, upon intelligent
excavation, careful collection of data, and accurate observation of
specimens, but the investigator cannot hope to derive the best results
from his labors if he does not hold to a very broad view of his field.
He must familiarize himself not only with the material of the locality
he is working in but must also know as much as possible about that of
other regions, for it is of the last importance that trade-objects be
recognized wherever they occur. Of all trade-objects, vessels and
potsherds are likely to be the commonest and most easily recognizable.
When the members of the Pecos expedition realized how vitally important
was to be a close knowledge of the pottery, not only of that particular
site, but also of the Rio Grande in general, and, indeed, of the entire
Southwest, they devoted a large part of their time, both in the field
and at the Museum, to the study of ceramics. A difficulty was at once
encountered in our ignorance of the technique of Pueblo pottery making.
We were constantly obliged to compare the paints and slips of different
wares, to decide whether observed variations were technically
fundamental, or were merely accidents of clay-mixing or firing. No full
published accounts existed, nor had any of us had the opportunity for
more than casual observation of potters at work. Dr. Guthe, accordingly,
spent the month of August, 1921, at San Ildefonso in making detailed
studies. His results are published in the hope that they may be of use
to Southwestern archaeologists and ethnologists, and also to students of
the primitive pottery of other areas who may be in need of material for
comparative purposes.
In order that the reader may envisage the long history that lies behind
the work of the modern potters, I give a summary of our present
knowledge of the origin and development of pottery in the Southwest.
To go back to the very beginning, it is not yet certain whether pottery
making was introduced into the region from Mexico, or whether it was a
local invention. There is evidence in favor of each theory. As will
presently be shown, there can be traced in the Southwest an almost
unbroken development from the earliest and crudest forms, through
intermediate stages, to the perfected styles of later times; nor can
Mexican influence be seen in the wares themselves at any period from
beginning to end. Hence it might appear that the art was of purely local
origin and growth. On the other hand, Mexico was the breeding ground for
all the higher elements of native American culture; corn-growing, the
cultivation of cotton, the use of stone masonry, the true loom, etc.,
and it is practically certain that all these traits worked into the
Southwest from Mexico. It would thus seem reasonable to suppose that the
concept of pottery came from the same source, particularly as pottery
does not appear in our area until some time after the introduction of
corn, and the mere presence of corn proves contact of one sort or
another with Mexico, where presumably pottery had been in use for a
considerable period. My present feeling is, however, that the
importation consisted of no more than the bare idea that vessels could
be made of clay, and that the subsequent development of the art was
entirely unaffected by outside influences. This question, so important
for its bearing on general problems of dissemination _versus_
independent origin of culture traits, can only be settled by work in the
archaeologically still unknown field of northern Mexico.
The earliest inhabitants of the Southwest of whom we have certain
knowledge were the Basket Makers, so called by their discoverer because
basketry rather than pottery was buried with their dead. They lived in
southeastern Utah and northern Arizona, were an agricultural or
semi-agricultural people who built no permanent houses, and who had no
true pottery. In some of the caves that they occupied, however, there
have been found a few fragments of crude, unfired clay dishes whose
thick, bungling sides bear the imprints of the fingers of their makers.
Save for occasional hesitating lines of incised marks, or straggling
daubs of black paint, these vessels are undecorated. They bear no slip,
nor, as was said above, were any of them subjected to the burning which
would have converted them into true pottery. In the course of time,
though whether that time should be counted in tens, or hundreds, or even
thousands of years, we have at present no way of telling, the Basket
Makers began to build houses of stone slabs, to group their hitherto
scattered dwellings together into small communities, and, most important
of all from the point of view of our present inquiry, to make hard,
thin-walled, thoroughly fired vessels, in other words real pottery. The
culture stage characterized by these
[Illustration: FIG. 1. Outlines of Post-Basket Maker vessels. (Courtesy
S. J. Guernsey.)]
remains and further distinguishable from the classic Basket Maker on the
basis of house structure, sandal form, and other traits, was first
identified by S. J. Guernsey, and named by him “post-Basket Maker”.
Post-Basket Maker pottery is simple in form and in decoration. It is
normally light gray in color. The vessel forms most commonly found are
bowls (fig. 1, d, e), globular vessels with restricted orifices (fig. 1,
a), and water jars, the latter often having a swollen neck (fig. 1, b).
The body of the ware in cross-section has a markedly granular
appearance, due to the large size of the bits of tempering material
included in it. A small percentage of the bowls bear a thin white slip
on the interior
[Illustration: PLATE 2
ANCIENT CORRUGATED WARES
a. Pre-Pueblo. b. Early Pueblo. c. Classic Pueblo period.]
and are ornamented with irregularly drawn designs in black paint (fig.
1, e). Many of the patterns suggest basketry prototypes.
All in all, post-Basket Maker pottery, judging from the few specimens so
far recovered, is surprisingly well made; so well as to raise the
suspicion that an earlier stage still awaits discovery. Hints of such a
stage have, indeed, been found in the form of heavy clay dishes,
tempered with shredded juniper bark, unbaked but distinctly superior in
size and workmanship to the Basket Maker product. These specimens have
turned up in post-Basket Maker sites, but in caves stratigraphically so
confused that it is still uncertain whether they antedated, or were
contemporaneous with, the more highly-perfected post-Basket Maker wares.
They are too crude, however, to be considered the direct forerunners of
post-Basket Maker pottery. If the development took place in the San
Juan, one step at least is still lacking. These questions will be
answered by further work of the sort now being carried on by Guernsey in
the Kayenta country and by Morris in the Canyon del Muerto.
[Illustration: FIG. 2. Pre-Pueblo vessels.]
From post-Basket Maker times down to the present day, however, the
development of Southwestern pottery can already be outlined with
considerable confidence. The next stage is usually called the
pre-Pueblo. It is marked by further improvements in house-building, by
the introduction of cranial deformation, and by certain innovations in
ceramics. It had been the custom with the post-Basket Makers (as among
many primitive people) to build up their vessels by adding to the
growing walls successive rings of clay. When the process was complete
and the sides had reached the requisite height, all trace of the rings
was obliterated by rubbing down the surface. In the interiors of some
post-Basket Maker pieces, however, with orifices so small that a
smoothing tool could not be introduced, there were left the telltale
junction-lines between the structural rings. In pre-Pueblo times it
became the fashion purposely to leave unsmoothed the last few rings at
the necks of certain small cooking vessels (fig. 2, a; pl. 2, a). This
was the beginning of the elaborate coiled or corrugated technique, later
so widely used.
Pre-Pueblo black-on-white ware takes the form of bowls, pitchers,
ladles, small jars, and ollas. Its paste is hard, is less heavily
tempered than post-Basket Maker paste, and the surfaces of the pieces
are better smoothed. The decoration is characterized by boldness and
dash, the brushwork being correspondingly hasty. The lines are of
irregular width, nor was care exercised that the junctions of strokes
should be accurate. As is shown by the accompanying drawings (fig. 2, b,
c), the commonest elements are the stepped figure and the triangle, both
often emphasized by sets of widely spaced thin lines which follow the
outer edges of the basic patterns.
The transition between the pre-Pueblo and the Pueblo was evidently a
gradual one. There was no violent break, either in culture or in
physical type; and so it is hard to say just where the dividing line
should be drawn. The introduction of indented corrugated pottery,
however, forms a convenient milepost on the road of ceramic progress.
The change was brought about as follows: the plain, broad rings of
pre-Pueblo ware were replaced by a continuous thin fillet of clay
applied spirally; the junctions between the successive laps of the
fillet were left unobliterated, not only at the neck, but over the
entire vessel; and the fillet itself was also notched or pinched or
otherwise indented to produce various ornamental effects (pl. 2, b, c).
Thus was made the well-known coiled or corrugated cooking-ware so
characteristic of all the archaic true Pueblo ruins, a style introduced
at about the same time as the development of the above-ground
rectangular living-room, the clustered method of building, and the use
of horizontally coursed masonry, all elements that are commonly
recognized as typical of true Pueblo culture. The earliest varieties of
Pueblo pottery are imperfectly known, for little work has so far been
done in the small and often nearly obliterated mounds that mark the
house-sites of the first pueblo-dwellers. It is certain, however, that
in the San Juan and Little Colorado drainages there was a strong growth
in corrugated ware. This technique was experimented on and played with.
The variety and even virtuosity of the results are extraordinary: waved
coiling, pinched coiling, incised coiling, and all manner of indenting
were practised (pl. 2, b). The black-on-white ware evidently did not
advance so rapidly, the vessels, to judge from the sherds, were not
particularly symmetrical as to shape or notable as to finish. The
decoration ran to hachure in wavy lines and to poorly drawn spiral
figures.
As I have just said, little is known of the early Pueblo sites. The
period which they represent, however, was undoubtedly a long one. The
date of its beginning is entirely problematical, nor can we even say
with any assurance when it ended, but the probabilities are that as
early as the opening of the Christian era the Pueblos had begun to
gather together into larger settlements, to develop the closely-knit
community life, and the many-storied terraced style of architecture
which typify the golden age of their existence. Between that time and
1000 or 1100 A.D. the more or less uniform early culture split up into
distinct and often highly specialized local sub-cultures, each of which
followed its own line of growth in house-building, pottery-making, and
the minor arts. It was during this general phase of Southwestern history
that there came into being the great pueblos and cliff-dwellings that
housed entire villages: Pueblo Bonito and the other Chaco Canyon towns;
the cliffhouses of the Mesa Verde and of the Kayenta country; the
enormous adobe constructions such as Casa Grande on the Gila and Casas
Grandes in Chihuahua.
[Illustration: PLATE 3
OLD MODERN DECORATED WARE
a. Acoma. b. Zuñi. c. Sia. d. Hopi. e. San Ildefonso. f. Tesuque. g.
Santo Domingo. h. Cochiti.]
[Illustration: PLATE 4
OLD PIECES FROM SAN ILDEFONSO
a, b. Black-on-buff. c, d. Polished black.]
To describe the many different wares of the classic Pueblo period would
entail far more space than is available in this introduction. Brief
accounts of the more important styles are included in the first paper of
the present series,[2] and a handbook of Southwestern pottery will, it
is hoped, appear as a subsequent number. A single
[Illustration: FIG. 3. Black-on-white bowls of classic Pueblo period. a.
Chaco Canyon. b. Mimbres Valley. c. Upper Gila River. d. Mesa Verde.]
illustration (fig. 3) must suffice to show the bewildering variety and
the high artistic perfection which were reached at this time.
It seems ordained that periods of high achievement shall be followed by
periods of slackening and even atrophy. So it was with the Pueblos. The
years between about 1000 A.D. and the Spanish invasion of 1540 were
evidently a time of tribulation. The formerly prosperous communities of
the North and the South were abandoned, the population shrank, the arts
degenerated, and when Coranado entered the Southwest he found the
Pueblos occupying a mere fraction of their former range. What brought
about this decline is not surely known, droughts, intertribal wars,
pestilences, inbreeding, may all have been in part responsible; but its
principal cause was probably the ever-increasing attacks of nomadic
enemies. At all events Pueblo culture of the sixteenth century was not
what it had been in the past, and pottery making suffered with the other
arts. By that time the beautiful and elaborate, but difficult,
corrugated technique had been given up, and cooking vessels had become
mere unornamented pots; black-on-white ware with its handsome, intricate
geometric decoration had long been extinct, replaced by various local
styles, few of which equalled it in technical excellence or artistic
perfection. As a matter of fact the ceramic products of the historic
period are very little known. In old times pottery formed an essential
accompaniment of the dead, hence at nearly every prehistoric ruin may be
found a burial place richly stocked with mortuary vessels. With the
arrival of the priests, however, missions and Catholic cemeteries were
established, all interments took place under the supervision of the
Padres, and no more bowls or ollas went into the graves.
Pottery, of course, is short-lived, few vessels, other than reverently
guarded ceremonial jars, can be expected to escape breakage for more
than a generation or two, and so we have practically no material to
illustrate the changes which took place between the Conquest and the
present day. Much will eventually be learned in regard to seventeenth
and eighteenth century Pueblo pottery, but the work will have to be done
largely on the basis of sherds from the rubbish heaps of the older
towns, and such broken pieces as may be found under the fallen walls of
abandoned dwellings. We can, however, supplement this research by
working backwards, so to speak, from the modern wares. If we can acquire
a thorough knowledge of them it will be much easier to understand the
fragmentary material we shall have to deal with in studying the early
historic period. We should accordingly collect all possible data as to
the wares turned out in recent years at the various pottery-making
Pueblos.
The term pottery-making Pueblos is used advisedly, for, queerly enough,
no pottery is manufactured at a number of the towns. If this condition
had come about within the last decade it would be easy to account for,
as tin oil cans for holding water, enamelled pots for cooking, and china
dishes for serving food have lately been pushing native pottery out of
use. But no pottery, other than rough cooking ware, has been made for a
long time at Taos, Picuris, San Felipe, Jemez, and Sandia; while the art
is practically or wholly extinct at Laguna, Isleta, and Santa Ana.
Potters occasionally marry into these towns and continue to exercise
their craft, but they seem to have no disciples among their daughters or
among the local tribeswomen. At all the other Pueblos, however, potting
is still carried on, but in most cases with a decreasing output and a
lamentable degeneration in technique. The vessels, being mostly made to
sell to tourists or curio dealers, are carelessly fashioned, crudely
decorated, and insufficiently fired. Good contemporary pieces
[Illustration: PLATE 5
OLD MODERN SAN ILDEFONSO WARES
a, c, d. Polychrome. b, e. Black-on-red.]
[Illustration: PLATE 6
_Courtesy K. M. Chapman_
PRESENT-DAY POLYCHROME WARE BY MARIA MARTINEZ]
are becoming rare, and the older vessels, which are naturally the best
material for study, are now almost gone from the villages. Some pieces,
however, are still left, and many more are in the hands of Mexicans and
Americans living in the Southwest. These should be got into the custody
of museums as rapidly as possible, for pottery is fragile stuff and
every year sees the breakage of many unreplacable old vessels.
Excellent work in collecting and preserving the older pieces is being
done by certain residents of Santa Fe, who have organized the
“Southwestern Pottery Fund”. In spite of limited resources they have got
together a most remarkable collection from the Eastern pueblos, and are
constantly adding to it as specimens come into the market.
A plate showing a typical example of old modern decorated ware from each
of the pottery-making pueblos is here given, in order that the reader
may appreciate the striking differences which obtain (pl. 3); San
Ildefonso vessels of this period are illustrated elsewhere (pls. 4, 5).
In closing this introduction something should be said of the older San
Ildefonso wares, and of the remarkable renaissance which has led to the
high artistic achievements of the present-day potters.
Of the pottery made at San Ildefonso during the early historic period we
have as yet no definite knowledge, but from the fact that the sherds at
the ruined pueblo of Cuyamongé, a Tewa village only a few miles from San
Ildefonso which was abandoned in 1698, are closely similar to the
seventeenth century wares of Pecos, we may conclude that the San
Ildefonso product of that time also bore resemblance to that of Pecos.
The Pecos wares in question have as yet been but briefly described.[3]
The following are the leading varieties: rough black cooking ware;
polished red; polished black; and decorated ware of two varieties,
black-on-buff, and black-and-red-on-buff. The ornamentation is in heavy
black lines, for the most part sloppily drawn, but the designs are bold,
free, and effective. Although these styles all differ to some extent
from the ceramics of late nineteenth century San Ildefonso, the artistic
and technical relationship of the two groups is evident at a glance. The
principal differences lie in the much greater amount of polished red
found at Pecos, and in the absence from Pecos of a black-on-red
decorated ware made at San Ildefonso.
What we know of nineteenth century San Ildefonso pottery is derived from
pieces found in the pueblo when collecting began about 1870; and from
vessels secured between that date and 1900. The oldest examples we have
were thus probably not made much before 1850, and the great bulk of the
specimens now in museums and in private hands were presumably turned out
during the last third of the century. This material (aside from cooking
pots, of which the older collections contain practically no examples) is
divisible into five types, two plain and three decorated. The plain
wares are polished black and polished red; the decorated are
black-on-buff, black-and-red-on-buff (usually called polychrome), and
black-on-red.
The polished black and polished red are, as Dr. Guthe brings out in
greater detail below (p. 74), merely variants of the same ware--the red
being produced by a preliminary burning in a more or less open fire--the
black by smothering the fire with pulverized manure at a late stage in
the burning. Vessels of both sorts were evidently made at San Ildefonso
during the period under discussion, the red rarely, the black fairly
commonly. It is usually supposed that the making of these wares,
particularly the polished black, was confined to the nearby town of
Santa Clara, and vessels of the latter type are ordinarily referred to
as “Santa Clara black”. This is a natural enough error as the Santa
Clara turn out nothing but the polished wares, and until the last ten
years they led all the other pueblos in the excellence of their
manufacture. The Indians of San Ildefonso, however, say that they have
always made polished black pottery, and while its production may have
partly or wholly lapsed during the 90’s and early 1900’s, there is
little doubt that many of the older specimens, such as the ones here
illustrated (pl. 4), are actually from San Ildefonso. The majority of
the examples of old black are large storage jars with full, round bodies
and relatively small orifices; there are also capacious bowl-like
vessels (called by the Mexicans _cajetes_), which were used for the
mixing of dough. The old pieces are less meticulously finished than are
those of today, but their deep, velvety black lustre is of even greater
beauty than the extremely high polish of the modern pieces.
The black-on-buff decorated ware was evidently the commonest variety of
nineteenth century pottery. It took the form of prayer-meal bowls (small
open vessels with terraced sides); medium-sized pots (pl. 3, e); and
large storage jars (pl. 4). The ware, like all San Ildefonso work, is
thick and heavy, giving a “woodeny” sound when tapped. The surface color
is a creamy buff and the decoration is in deep black pigment. The
bottoms of all the pieces, and the interiors of the necks of the jars,
are painted red. The general nature of the elaborate designs is best
brought out by the illustrations.[4]
Black-and-red-on-buff or polychrome was apparently not an abundant style
in old times. Its occurrence at Cuyamongé and at Pecos, however, seem to
indicate that it was always made at San Ildefonso. There are also in
museums and private collections pieces which appear to be as old as any
of the examples of non-polychrome. The style was seemingly limited to
bowls and small jars (pl. 5). The ware itself is the same as the
foregoing, but various areas in the decorations (which themselves seem
to differ from those of the black-on-buff) are filled in with a purplish
red paint of very characteristic shade.
The red-on-black, like the polychrome, was not common. As was said
above, it is absent from Pecos and Cuyamongé, therefore it is apparently
of fairly recent origin in the Rio Grande. Its introduction or invention
may, indeed, date from as recent a time as 1850. It differs from the
buff wares in having a dark red slip, much more highly polished than are
the buff slips. The decoration is in deep black. No large pieces, as far
as I know, were made, most specimens being small globular jars without
necks. One of these and a vase-like vessel are illustrated (pl. 5).
Such was the pottery of San Ildefonso during the second half of the
nineteenth century. Toward the end of that period, however, a marked
degeneration set in.
[Illustration: PLATE 7
_Courtesy K. M. Chapman_
PRESENT-DAY SAN ILDEFONSO POTTERY
a, b. Black-on-red by Antonita Roybal. c. Polychrome, by Maria
Martinez--one black-on-red piece by Maximiliana Martinez.]
This was due to the substitution for native pottery of American utensils
for cooking, food-serving, and containing water; and to the growing
tendency to produce pottery for sale to curio stores and tourists rather
than for home use. The black-on-buff ware and the polished black were
given up entirely, the potters concentrating on the more showy
black-on-red and particularly on the polychrome. In the case of the
black-on-red the high gloss of the older pieces was no longer produced,
and the paint, being neither carefully mixed nor sufficiently aged (see
p. 26) developed on firing a dull, bluish cast. The polychrome also fell
off in technical perfection and in artistic excellence. The old, dull,
purplish reds were replaced by brighter colors, the designs became
flamboyant, and many ugly non-Indian vessel shapes were introduced (fig.
4). This state of affairs went from bad to worse until, in 1907, the
potter’s art at San Ildefonso was in a thoroughly bad way. A few women,
however,
[Illustration: FIG. 4. Bad examples of modern pottery--un-Indian shapes
and slipshod decoration.]
retained something of the old craftsmanship and were ready to profit by
the opportunity which was about to present itself.
In 1907 Dr. E. L. Hewett of the School of American Research began a
series of excavations in the ancient ruins of the Pajarito Plateau. The
diggers were all Tewa Indians from San Ildefonso. They proved to be
excellent shovelmen, who took a keen interest in everything they found.
They helped us identify many specimens which would otherwise have been
puzzling, and their comments on the pottery, and especially on the
designs, were most illuminating. The women of the Pueblo, when visiting
camp, often held animated discussions as to the vessels from the ruins,
and it was suggested to some who were known to be good potters, that
they attempt to revive their art, and try to emulate the excellence of
the ancient wares. While the response was not immediate, there was
observable, during the next few years, a distinct improvement in the
pottery of San Ildefonso. Realizing the importance of this, the
authorities of the Museum of New Mexico and the School of American
Research threw themselves heartily into the task of stimulating the
industry. They urged the women to do better and better work, and in
particular induced them to return to the sound canons of native art.
Some old pieces remained in the pueblo, many others were in the Museum,
of still others photographs were obtained. These were all brought to the
attention of the potters.
The undertaking was not an easy one, however, for it was difficult to
get most of the women to go to the trouble of making good pieces when
the tourists, who were still the principal purchasers, were equally or
even better pleased with imitations of china water-pitchers, ill-made
raingods, and candlesticks. The problem thus resolved itself into one of
supplying a market. The Museum bought many good pieces, and Mr. Chapman,
who from the beginning had been a leading spirit in the attempt at
rehabilitating the art, himself purchased large amounts of pottery,
never refusing a creditable piece, never accepting a bad one.
Progress was slow, but eventually certain women, becoming interested in
their work, made real progress both technically and artistically. Their
products began to sell more freely and at better prices than did those
of others. Antonita Roybal, Ramona Gonzales, Maximiliana Martinez, and
Maria Martinez all turned out fine vessels, the two latter being greatly
aided by their husbands, who developed into skillful decorators. Maria
especially shone. By 1915 she had far surpassed all the others, her pots
were in great demand, and at the present time she has a ready market, at
prices which ten years ago would have seemed fantastic, for everything
she can find time to make. Her income is probably not less than
$2,000.00 a year, and following her example, many other women are now
doing fine work and are earning substantial amounts. The beneficial
effect of this on the pueblo has naturally been great. New houses have
been built, new farm machinery, better food, and warmer clothing have
been bought, and, best of all, there has been acquired a wholesome
feeling of independence and of accomplishment, the value of which cannot
be gauged in dollars and cents.
From the point of view of ceramics the development has been most
interesting. Maria began with the manufacture of polychrome ware, as
that was the style most commonly being made at the time. The shapes were
improved, the finish of the surfaces was given greater attention, and
the decorations were applied with a surer, more delicate touch (pl. 6;
pl. 7, c). Black-on-red ware was taken in hand, the oldtime polish was
restored, the vegetable paint properly prepared and aged (pl. 7, a, b).
Polished black was also reintroduced; pieces of this sort, with their
simple, graceful shapes and high black gloss sold so well that they soon
became an important product (pl. 8, b). In 1921, as Dr. Guthe records
(p. 24), Maria discovered how to apply to polished vessels dull designs
which give the appearance of being etched (pl. 8, a). This method was in
its infancy when Dr. Guthe made his study, but it has since proved so
remarkably successful that it bids fair to drive out completely the
making of plain polished ware. Late in the past autumn there appeared at
the Indian Fair in Santa Fe, some pieces of a warm pinkish color, an
entirely new departure in San Ildefonso pottery making, and one which
promises much of interest. Developments and changes in design have kept
pace with the improvements in
[Illustration: PLATE 8
_Courtesy K. M. Chapman_
PRESENT-DAY POLISHED BLACK WARES]
technique, yet the development has been purely Indian, and the basic
processes of today are essentially the same as they were a hundred or a
thousand years ago.
A somewhat similar revival has taken place at the Hopi towns in Arizona.
In 1897 Dr. J. W. Fewkes of the Bureau of Ethnology was excavating the
ruin of Sikyatki near First Mesa. Nampeo, a woman of Hano, the wife of
one of the workmen, observed the beautiful old bowls that came from the
graves, skillfully copied their designs and then searched out beds of
clay that could be burned to the exact shades of the ancient pieces. Her
work was a direct imitation of a lost style rather than a development,
such as Maria’s, of a current one; but the effect has been no less
extraordinary. Nampeo’s bowls and ollas were so attractive that they
sold well; they were copied by other women for sale and for their own
use, and thus the potter’s art of the Hopi was not only greatly
stimulated but also radically changed.
In addition to their economic importance, the cases of San Ildefonso and
Hopi are of great interest as anthropological phenomena. The stimulus at
both places was of course partly commercial, but it could scarcely have
acted without an inherent capacity for rapid artistic and technical
progress among the Indians themselves, nor could it possibly have
brought about such great results without the inspiring example of
exceptionally gifted leaders. It is, therefore, quite conceivable that
other stimuli, as the discovery of new clays of surpassing excellence,
or of fine new pigments, may have proved equally potent in ancient
times, and that some of the striking mutations in pottery making, which
have so puzzled archaeologists, may have been originally started by such
discoveries, and been brought to fruition by the genius of prehistoric
Marias and Nampeos.
A. V. KIDDER
_Director Pecos Expedition_
PUEBLO POTTERY MAKING
BY CARL E. GUTHE
The Pueblo of San Ildefonso is a Tewa village of about one hundred
people, situated on the east bank of the Rio Grande some twenty miles
northeast of Santa Fe, New Mexico. San Ildefonso was chosen for the
present study because its women have always been skillful potters, and
under the wise and friendly encouragement of the authorities of the
School of American Research at Santa Fe have of recent years been
steadily improving in their work without, however, sacrificing any of
their native methods. Furthermore, they make more varieties of pottery
than are turned out at any other one village. Last, and in some ways
most important, the men of San Ildefonso have for a long time been
accustomed to work in the various excavations carried on by the School,
cordial relations have been established, the confidence of the Indians
has been thoroughly won, and I did not encounter that reticence toward
strangers, so characteristic of the Rio Grande Pueblos, because I was
known to be a friend of their friends.
To the Pueblo woman pottery making is simply one of the mechanical
household tasks, just as dishwashing is among us. Nearly every woman at
San Ildefonso is a potter, good, bad, or indifferent. In two cases, at
least, women have developed into real artists, and are relieved of other
household duties in order to devote their time to pottery making. Each
potter of today watched her mother make innumerable pots while she was
growing up, and now with a family of her own, she makes pottery just as
did her mother. Many steps and small details are carried out for no
other reason than that the mother used to do likewise. Obviously every
potter has her own technique, which differs slightly from that of
others. The daughters in one family work in more nearly the same manner
than outsiders, because they all have had the same teacher. In this
report the attempt has been made not only to record the essential steps
in the making of pottery, but also to note individual variations as an
index of the amount of latitude a given process may permit.
Because religion and ceremony play so important a role in the everyday
life of the Pueblo Indians, it is certain that there must be involved in
the making of pottery and particularly in its decoration, a mass of
esoteric beliefs and practises. The Pueblos, however, are so loath to
refer in any way to the mystical side of their existence, and, if it is
even mentioned, at once become so suspicious, that it seemed best to
steer clear of all allusion to such matters. The present report,
therefore, confines itself to a description and discussion of the
purely technical side of the potter’s art.
The writer is indebted to the staff of the School of American Research,
especially to Mr. Kenneth M. Chapman, for the facilities given for and
the interest shown in the work; also to the Governor of San Ildefonso,
Juan Gonzales, for his cordial coöperation. Of the eight informants
used, Maria, wife of Julian Martinez, and Antonita, wife of Juan Cruz
Roybal, should specially be mentioned because of their constant
patience, and their willingness to answer the many questions which to
them must often have seemed absurd. Thanks are also due to the American
Museum of Natural History, New York, for the photographs of pottery
making at Zuñi (pls. 28-31) which are introduced in this paper for
comparative purposes.
[Illustration: PLATE 9
WINNOWING CLAY
a. Hand method. As the material is sifted through the uplifted hands,
the wind blows the fine, pure clay upon the shawl at the left, while the
heavier impurities drop back on the pile.
b. Basket method. The clay is repeatedly tossed upward from the basket,
until all the fine particles have been blown out and have fallen upon
the shawl.]
RAW MATERIALS; COLLECTION, AND PREPARATION
INGREDIENTS
_Red Clay_[5]
The region most often visited for obtaining this clay is directly south
of San Ildefonso, about a quarter of a mile from the village itself, in
the arroyos of the low hills.[6] The deposit lies directly under a
sandstone ledge and spreads over a considerable area. The clay is in the
form of soft earth, easily scooped up with the hand. In gathering it the
Indians first scrape off the top half-inch or so, which contains
impurities such as small pebbles and twigs. When an area from two to
three feet in diameter has been cleared in this way, the clay itself is
scooped into a loose pile in the centre of the space, and transferred by
the cupped hands into a woman’s shawl or a gunny-sack, and so
transported to the house on the back.[7]
One method of cleaning the clay may be used either at the beds or at
home. The material is winnowed like wheat to remove small pebbles and
fine gravel, either of which will ruin a vessel. The larger impurities
are of course picked out by hand. The cloth containing the clay is
placed in front of the woman and a second cloth or shawl is spread on
the ground to leeward of her. A gusty wind requires several shiftings of
the shawl, to the woman’s evident annoyance. A double handful is lifted
and allowed to sift through the fingers; the fine particles and dust are
blown upon the shawl by the wind, while the heavier pieces fall again
upon the pile of uncleaned clay (pl. 9, a). The height to which the
hands are lifted, varying from three to five feet, the speed of the
movements, and the rapidity with which the material is allowed to sift
through the fingers, all depend upon the force of the wind. Sometimes,
instead of lifting the clay in the hands, it is allowed to flow over the
side of a shallow basket tilted toward the woman at the level of her
shoulder; the coarser particles fall straight down in front of her on
the pile of uncleaned clay. Another variation is to toss the clay into
the air from a shallow basket (pl. 9, b). The movement is repeated
quickly and rhythmically; the wind as before blowing the fine stuff on
the shawl, while the coarse particles fall back into the basket. After
this tossing has been repeated a dozen or more times, the residue, which
consists mostly of coarse impurities, is thrown away. The process
occupies approximately half an hour, depending somewhat upon the amount
of clay handled. The cleaned clay, which is now ready for mixing, is by
no means entirely dust; it contains no lumps, but flaky particles fully
three-sixteenths of an inch across are often found in it.
If at the time of gathering the wind is not strong enough for winnowing,
the uncleaned clay is brought to the house. Here it may be kept for a
windy day, or may at once be sifted through an ordinary kitchen sieve of
medium large mesh.
The clay, when cleaned, may be stored in a variety of receptacles
(pottery vessels, sacks, or boxes), or, if it is the intention of the
woman to use it within a few days, it is simply left in the shawl.
During the fall the Indians gather great quantities of clay, and pile it
on the floor in the corner of a room for use during the winter when the
clay beds are frozen.
The preparation of the clay for use consists of two processes, mixing
and kneading. The mixing, which as a rule immediately precedes the
kneading, consists of the addition of temper (see page 21). This is done
while both ingredients are dry. Different varieties of clay are not
mixed together. The work is done on a piece of canvas, an opened
cement-sack, or the inner side of a skin (usually that of a goat or
dog).[8] Either the clay or the temper may be put on the mixing surface
first; the other ingredient is then added, and the whole is sifted
through the fingers until the mass is uniform in color. The Indians have
no definite idea of the necessary proportions. They judge simply by the
color of the resulting mixture. The proportions used by three different
informants seemed to be about one-third temper and two-thirds clay.
Before mixing, the clay is reddish brown; the addition of temper
lightens the color several shades.
The scrapings from partly finished vessels (see page 54) and the
ground-up fragments of pots which have cracked badly in the course of
sun-drying are used a second time. This re-used clay, since it already
has temper in it, does not need to be mixed over again. It is mingled
with newly mixed clay just before kneading, or is kneaded by itself, as
occasion demands.
The kneading is usually done on the same canvas or skin that was used
for the mixing. If a large amount of clay is to be treated at one time,
a quantity of water is poured into a hollow formed in the centre of the
pile. Later, as the worked clay or paste approaches the proper
consistency, water is sprinkled over it with one hand, just as clothes
are sprinkled, at first copiously, later more sparingly. At the
beginning, the entire mass is kneaded until the water has been
thoroughly absorbed. When the paste is wet, it becomes of course
considerably darker. It is then divided into masses which can easily be
handled, about the size of two large loaves of white bread. The woman
works the paste to a uniform consistency in exactly the same way that
dough is kneaded (pl. 12, a), and piles the masses, now ready for use in
moulding, on a board or canvas, covering then with a piece of cloth to
keep them damp until they come under the potter’s hands. The consistency
is that of putty, just dry enough to crack if pinched. The mixing and
kneading can be completed in half an hour.[9]
[Illustration: PLATE 10
a. Indian digging material for tempering pottery from an outcrop near
the village.
b. Guaco, or Rocky Mountain Bee Plant, from the juice of which is made
black paint for decorating pottery.]
_White Clay_
White clay is used interchangeably with red, but the two are never
mixed. It is obtained in the bad-lands to the northeast of San
Ildefonso, from the side of an arroyo at some distance from the village.
The Indians dig it, bring it home, and prepare it in exactly the same
manner as the red clay. The color, when dry, is greyish white; when wet,
brownish grey.
_Temper_
The Indians of San Ildefonso obtain their tempering material from
outcrops along the Santa Fe-Española road, in the vicinity of the
landmark known as Camel Rock. Near the crest of the first high hill
crossed by the road north of Camel Rock, just west of the road, in the
eastern bank of the cut of the old abandoned road, is a small cave made
by the digging of this temper (pl. 10, a). There is another outcrop in
the ridge of which Camel Rock is a part. This mineral is a very light
grey in color. When freshly exposed to the air it is soft and
crumbly--fragments as large as the fist can be crushed in the hand--but
after being exposed for some time it hardens. When chopped out with an
axe or hatchet it takes the form of small fragments and fine powder.
There are veins and nodules of a hard yellow rock in the stratum, which
are chopped out and thrown away. The source of the temper is at such a
distance from the pueblo that trips to it are made only at long
intervals when a large quantity is secured in cement-bags, and carried
home in a wagon. Two cement-bags may be filled with from fifteen to
twenty minutes’ work at the quarry.
Some of the Indians, while still at the quarry, pound the temper with an
axe or hatchet, or a stone, to break the larger pieces and remove the
coarser impurities. Others wait to clean it until reaching the house. In
the latter case the temper is spread on a cloth or skin; the skin being
preferred as offering a smoother, more resistant surface. It is then
broken up by trampling it with moccasined feet. Formerly the Indians
ground the temper on their metates. The final step in the preparation is
to pass the material through a sieve to remove the smaller impurities
such as sand and crushed rock. Before the sieve was known, the Indians
spread the temper in a very thin layer on a board or skin, and went over
it carefully and painstakingly with their fingers, feeling for any
slight irregularities or rough places. The temper when cleaned is a fine
powder, which looks and feels like dry cement. It is stored in old
cement-bags ready to be mixed with the clay.
The purpose of the addition of tempering material is to counteract the
tendency of the pure clay to crack during the shrinkage that takes place
in sun-drying and in firing. If, however, there is too much temper, the
clay becomes “short” and loses its adhesiveness. The Indians understand
this fully, for if vessels crack badly during sun-drying, they are
ground up, and more temper is added to the paste before it is used
again; if, on the other hand, a pot will not retain its shape while
being moulded, it is pulled down, more dry clay added to the paste, and
the mass rekneaded.[10]
_Cooking-Vessel, or Apache, Clay_
This is very different from the two other kinds of clays used. It is
light brown in color, with a large quantity of fine mica flakes in
it[11]; it also has a distinctive odor. When wet it smells cleaner and
fresher than the red or white clay, like a newly plowed field after a
shower. Some of the San Ildefonso Indians obtain this clay from Las
Truchas, a mountain district to the northeast of the village[12]; others
get it from Santa Fe Canyon. It is dug either with the hand or with a
small stick, and is brought to the pueblo in the form of small lumps.
While still in this condition, it is stored in vessels or bags.
The preparation for use is very different from that of the other clays.
The lumps are put in a receptacle, such as an enameled washbasin, and
sufficient water is added to saturate them. If too much water has been
mixed in, the mass is put in the sun to dry out for a while. After the
clay has been thoroughly softened by the water, the next step is to
remove the pebbles. A small handful is carefully and slowly squeezed and
kneaded in the left hand, while the thumb and forefinger of the right
are used to pick out the numerous small pebbles as they are encountered.
After most of these have been removed, the clay is put on a canvas or
skin, and a small part of it at a time is flattened out with the heel of
the right hand, pressing away from the body, and against the cloth or
skin so as to produce a very thin layer, in which the smaller pebbles
are readily felt and from which they can easily be eliminated. Finally
when this has been done with all the clay, the whole mass is kneaded
together, just as the red and white clays are kneaded. When a uniform
consistency has been attained--that of putty--the mass is ready for use.
The removal of pebbles and the kneading consume from one-half to
three-quarters of an hour. The pebbles which have been removed are
placed in a small lard-pail containing water, and when the clay adhering
to them has dissolved, they are thrown away and the clayey water is used
in the process of moulding the paste.
The most important difference between this clay and the others is that
no temper of any kind is mixed with it; the clay, after being cleaned,
is used in the vessels just as it came out of the claypit. The fine mica
flakes probably act as temper.
SLIPS AND PAINTS
_Native Slip_[13]
This is a white, flaky, fairly soft mineral, which is used in solution
to give a white outer coating to the bodies of vessels. It is found at
some distance from the pueblo, beyond the bad-lands which are visible to
the northeast. When the Indians reach the place they pick up small
sticks to use as digging tools, but if the deposit happens to be soft
enough, the material is merely scooped out with the hand. It is carried
home in shawls or bags, and placed in the sun to dry thoroughly; then
stored in pottery vessels, usually ollas. It receives no further
treatment at this time. When preparing it for use, the Indians simply
place it in water as it is, in small lumps. The container is either a
small pottery vessel or an enamelled basin. A sufficient amount is mixed
with the water to give it the color of milk, but not to thicken it.
Occasionally the consistency of thin cream is obtained. Undissolved
lumps remain in the solution.
_Santo Domingo Slip_
This substance, known to the Indians of San Ildefonso either as “Santo
Domingo white” or “Cochiti white”, is usually obtained from the Santo
Domingo people; it is dug, according to some informants, in the same
manner as the native slip. In color and general appearance it is exactly
like the latter, but its surface feels more soapy. Santo Domingo slip
has largely replaced the native product, because when applied it does
not need to be polished with a stone, as does the native slip. It is
prepared for use in exactly the same manner as the native slip.
_Red Slip_
This is a rather loose red earth, which is dug either with the hands or,
if conditions demand it, with a small stick. The San Ildefonso Indians
obtain it near Santa Fe, but not all of the women know the exact
location of the beds. One informant said it was found in Santa Fe
Canyon, east of the town, a short distance below the Apache clay beds,
at a spot where the convicts from the Penitentiary get material for
their bricks. There are three different colors of clay at this place,
red, yellow, and white. The red is the clay under discussion. The white
is used to color the women’s moccasins.[14]
This slip is handled in much the same manner as the other clays. It is
brought home in the usual receptacles--either shawls or bags--and placed
in the sun to dry thoroughly. It is then stored, usually in ollas or
other earthenware vessels, without further treatment.
There are two ways of preparing red slip for use, according to the kind
of vessel for which it is intended. For polished black ware, it is
simply mixed to a thin solution with water. For decorated red ware, the
process is slightly complicated. At some previous time, equal parts of
temper and native slip have been mixed in water and allowed to dry in
cakes. When desired for use on a vessel, the cakes are broken and
redissolved in water. A sufficient amount is put in to give the water an
opaque, milky color, but not to thicken it. To this mixture is added a
thin solution of the red slip. There is, apparently, no definite rule in
regard to the amount of the red solution to be added. The woman simply
puts in enough to give to the slip, when applied to a pot, the proper
shade of red. In some cases this mixing of the red and white is done
once for all at the beginning of the application of the red slip. In
other cases the woman has a bowl of each solution beside her, and from
time to time, as she works, adds some of the red to the white. In each
bowl lumps of the undissolved substances still remain. Occasionally the
slip is stirred to the consistency of cream, but nearly always it has
that of water.
_Orange-Red Slip_
This substance is a yellow clayey earth, in texture somewhat like the
two white slips. It occurs in the “Valle” to the west, beyond the first
Jemez range, near Ojo Caliente. It is dug with a stick, in the same
manner as the native white, and is carried home in shawls and bags.
Before being stored it is put out in the sun to dry thoroughly, then
placed in ollas and kept until needed. Like the other slips, it is
prepared for use by being mixed with water. A saturated solution is
made, but the consistency remains that of water.
This material, which in solution is a brilliant yellow, is used for two
purposes--as a slip to color the bases of bowls and ollas, and as a
paint to supply the red elements of polychrome designs. After being
fired it assumes an orange-red or burnt-sienna color.[15]
_Black Ware Paint_
This is a paint used for making matte designs on polished black ware, a
new departure in decorative technique first used by Maria and Julian
Martinez of San Ildefonso, in June, 1921. The substance is a hard yellow
stone, said to occur in the “Valle”, west of the Jemez range, near Ojo
Caliente, in the same district as the orange-red paint.
The first step in preparing the paint for use is to scrape the stone
with a knife. The resulting powder is mixed with water, and there is
then added about one-fourth as much dissolved “guaco” (see below) as
there is paint. It is said that the purpose of the guaco is to make the
paint “stick” to the polished surface. This paint, when ready for use,
is kept in a small earthenware or china dish. The consistency of the
mixture, like the other paints, is that of water.
_Black or Guaco Paint_
This is the only vegetable paint used by the San Ildefonso Indians for
the decoration of their pottery. It is obtained from a very common weed,
known as the Rocky Mountain Bee Plant, or Guaco,[16] which grows in the
moister flats of this district in great profusion. It flowers late in
July and early August, and the seedpods open toward the first of
September. The Indians say it grows at a given place only in alternate
years. In favorable spots the plants attain a height of five or six feet
(pl. 10, b).
The plant is gathered during April and May, when the shoots are only six
to ten inches high, and therefore tender. Great quantities of it are
carried home in shawls and bags. It is placed with water in Apache-clay
cooking-pots, and is boiled over an open fire, never on a stove. As
guaco has a bitter taste (“hot like pepper”, the women describe it) when
not cooked sufficiently, it is necessary to boil it until this
unpleasant flavor has disappeared. Over a hot fire half a day is long
enough, but often a whole day is required. Then the liquid is drained
into wide-mouthed earthen vessels and placed in the sun to harden into a
solid, black, rather sticky, mass. Some women reboil the liquid until it
thickens, before placing it in the sun. Metal containers are not used,
because they are said to spoil the color. The informants stated that
hardened guaco was not eaten. When it has become completely solidified
it is set away for future use in painting. It will keep indefinitely.
The residue in the pot, after the liquid has been poured off consists of
tender stems and leaves. This is eaten by the Indians, and is not unlike
spinach.
The hardened guaco juice is stored at least a year before it is used in
painting; the longer it is kept the better black it produces. If it is
used during the first year, the resulting color on the vessel is a
streaky blue-black.
Guaco is prepared for use in painting in the same manner as the other
pigments. A chunk of the hardened mass is broken off and dissolved in
water. One informant makes a solution which, although black, has the
consistency of water. The others use a syrupy solution almost like thin
molasses. The paint has a distinctive, not unpleasant, vegetable odor,
and is rather sticky. Any small, wide-mouthed Indian bowl, not too
shallow, is used as a paint-cup. In this bowl there is always a
stirring-stick, usually a splinter from a board.
FUEL
_Manure_
Both cow-manure and horse-manure are used for fuel in burning pottery,
but sheep-dung, when obtainable, is preferred, because it is thought to
make a hotter fire.
The cow-manure is collected from the corrals, and while still soft is
patted into large circular cakes, sixteen to twenty inches in diameter.
These, after being hardened in the sun, are stored in a dry room until
needed. Such circular cakes, with the hand-prints showing, are usually
employed for making the top of the oven.
The horse-manure is obtained from the corrals in the early spring, where
during the winter it has been trampled down by the horses into a compact
layer a foot or more thick. When the corrals are cleaned during April
this deposit is cut with an axe into chunks roughly two feet square.
After being removed, the squares are split with an axe into slabs
several inches thick, which are then stood up against the bases of house
or barn walls to dry in the sun, and later stored indoors until needed.
Disused bread-ovens sometimes serve as temporary storage places. Further
splitting of the slabs may be done at the time of firing. When used in
the ovens the slabs are from one to two inches thick.
Sometimes the slabs of manure are placed in the sun for a day or two
before being burned, but often they are taken directly from the
store-room to the fire, where they are supplemented by dried manure
collected from the pastures.
During the burning of polished black ware (see p. 74) the oven is
smothered with loose manure, which is brought in galvanized washtubs
directly from the stables and corrals, either at the time of burning, or
on the preceding day.[17]
_Kindling_
For starting the fire in the oven no wood but cedar is ever used. This
is cut into pieces from six to eighteen inches long and is split into
fine kindling at the time of burning.
[Illustration: PLATE 11
Gourd spoons, or kajepes, used to shape and smooth the walls of
vessels.]
PARAPHERNALIA
PRIMARY PARAPHERNALIA
_Earthenware Moulds or “Pukis”_
These moulds are usually the bases of broken bowls or ollas.
Occasionally pieces of pottery are made especially for moulds; in such
cases, although they are fired, they are neither finished carefully nor
decorated.
When a mould is to be used, a small amount of temper or wood ashes is
placed in it, so that the vessel being moulded will not stick to it.[18]
_Gourd Moulding Spoons or “Kajepes”_
These spoon-like implements (pl. 11) are made from pieces of gourd-rind,
usually from broken rattles or dippers. They vary greatly in size,
ranging in diameter from a little over one inch to as much as four, or
four and a half, inches. There are also many different shapes: round,
several forms of ovals, and a few which have one concave edge. The
various shapes are used for the different parts of the vessels. As a
general rule the larger kajepes are used on the larger vessels. Each
woman has from four to a dozen of these implements, which are distinctly
individual, for one potter shows awkwardness in handling the spoons of
another. It is said that potsherds were formerly used for the same
purpose as these gourd spoons.[19]
_Scrapers_
Two kinds of scrapers are used at the present time. One is the top of a
baking-powder can, which is popular because its shape makes it possible
to apply it to any part of a vessel. The other scraper is an ordinary
kitchen case-knife. The scraping of the vessels is done after they have
been dried in the sun. It is said that potsherds, with edges sharpened
on a piece of sandstone, were formerly used.
_Polishing Stones_
Very smooth, fine-grained pebbles of various colors are used to put the
final finish on certain kinds of pottery. They vary considerably in
size, from three-quarters of an inch long to three, or even three and a
half, inches. It is impossible to classify them by shape, except that
the larger ones are usually more flat than spherical. Most of the stones
appear to be waterworn pebbles, without any acute angles or sharp edges.
Usually two surfaces of the stone are highly polished, most frequently
at the ends, where they come in contact with the vessel. Some specimens
show signs of great wear.
Each potter has several polishing stones, the number varying from seven
to sixteen; they are distinctly the personal property of the potter, and
apparently have a semi-sacred significance. For the most part they are
heirlooms, handed down from mother to daughter, but additional stones
are picked up from ruins which the potters have visited. One informant
has four stones which her mother gave her, and three which she found at
the ruined pueblo of Puyé. Another informant uses a stone that belonged
to her great-grandmother, although her favorite is a small one which she
found herself at a nearby ruin. Stones are sometimes lent by one potter
to another, but they very seldom find their way outside the family
group.[20]
_Paint Brushes_
These brushes are narrow slivers of the leaves of yucca or soapweed,
from five to six inches long, and from an eighth to a quarter of an inch
wide. For a distance
[Illustration: FIG. 5. Slivers of yucca leaf with shredded ends, used as
paint brushes for decorating pottery.]
of about an inch from one end, the fibres are chewed and thus separated.
Most of the chewed fibres are then cut off, and the number remaining
determines the fineness of the point (fig. 5). For very thin lines a
brush of only one fibre is used. When out of service, the brushes are
kept in some receptacle which will protect the shredded ends. When the
implement is dry the chewed fibres become stiff and rather brittle, and
must be handled with care; before using they are soaked in water for two
or three minutes in order to soften them.[21]
SECONDARY PARAPHERNALIA
_Carrying and Storing Receptacles_
The receptacles used for bringing clays and other ingredients from the
pits to the village vary somewhat according to the distance that the
material must be carried. If the beds are close at hand, the material is
placed in a shawl spread flat on the ground. The shawl is then picked
up, the corners are tied, and the bundle is carried on the back.
Sometimes gunny-sacks and cement-sacks are used instead. If the beds are
at some distance from the pueblo, the material is placed in sacks and
brought home in the body of a wagon. As a rule the ingredients brought
home in shawls are transferred to sacks or boxes for storage. Paints are
kept in ollas, with the exception of the guaco paint, which is allowed
to remain in the bowl in which it is dried.
_Mixing Surfaces_
Whenever ingredients are to be mixed or crushed, the work is done upon
some sort of extra surface laid upon the floor. This surface is about a
yard square, and may be, apparently, of any suitable material--a bit of
old canvas, an opened-out cement-sack, or a small skin such as that of a
goat or dog. Similar surfaces also serve for mixing clay and temper, for
cleaning temper, for mixing the paste with water and kneading it, and
finally for holding the kneaded clay during moulding. Partly finished
vessels are placed upon such a surface at various stages of
construction. For winnowing clay, the women’s shawls are used.
_Boards_
No boards are placed beneath the pukis, or moulding trays, while they
are being used on the hard floor of the house, but in the courtyard
boards are used under them in order that holes may not be worn in the
ground during the constant turning necessary in moulding vessels. When
small vessels are completed they are placed in rows on a board, where
they remain during the early stages of the drying process. Rectangular,
flat-bottomed vessels are built directly on boards, or on low footstools
made of short boards with legs at each end.
_Water Containers_
While the potter is at work, she always has beside her a small lard-pail
partly filled with water, which serves to keep the kajepes damp, to
moisten parts of the vessel, and from time to time to clean her hands.
When the kajepes are not in use, they are usually placed in the pail. At
San Ildefonso such a pail is now the only form of water-container;
formerly pottery bowls were probably used.
_Mops for Slips_
These mops are the same for all slips. Each consists of a rag, folded
and refolded until it is about an inch or an inch and a half wide and
from two to two and a half inches long. One end of the rag or mop is
held between the thumb and the first two fingers of either hand; the
other end serves as a wide paint brush. The potters state that in former
times a piece of leather or skin served the same purpose as the cloth
mop.[22]
_Paint Receptacles_
Various receptacles hold the slips and paints that are ready for use.
The white slips are usually mixed and kept in enamelled basins and pans,
because a large quantity is prepared at one time. The red and orange-red
slips may be in small pottery bowls, or in china sauce-dishes. The guaco
is invariably in an Indian bowl. Undoubtedly at one time native bowls
were used exclusively, and there may even have been bowls of special
shapes or designs for this purpose; at present, however, no trace of
such a custom remains.
_Wiping Rags_
Wiping rags or, more simply, the aprons of the potters are used at
various stages of the work--after scraping, after polishing, after the
slip has dried, and after burning. Apparently any convenient piece of
cloth is satisfactory.
_Accessories in Firing_
When the vessels are to be fired, various accessories must be at hand.
Four or more half-bricks or stones are needed upon which to set the
grate. The latter may be either a discarded stove-grate, or a collection
of strips of iron, metal barrel-hoops, and odds and ends, placed
together to form a grill.[23] Small stones and tin cans--such as small
condensed milk cans and meat cans--are needed as props to keep the fuel
from touching the vessels during the burning. Flat pieces of tin and the
covers of large lard-pails serve at times to close spaces between the
fuel cakes, and to cover the oven-top, to support which metal rods are
often used. Lastly, pokers are needed to handle the fuel and to remove
the hot vessels. These may be wooden or iron rods, broomsticks, old
shovels, or even pitchforks. Each potter has her own collection of the
above materials and implements, stored away ready for use. These
collections of apparent refuse vary to a surprising extent.
MOULDING
For the purpose of this report the vessels may be divided into four
large groups: bowls, ollas, cooking vessels, and unusual shapes. With
respect to size there are two classes of bowls: those less than four
inches in diameter, and those larger than that size. In shape bowls may
be either wide-mouthed (pl. 6, b, g) or constricted-mouthed (pl. 6, a,
c). The ollas all have full, globular bodies and relatively small
orifices with or without flaring lips (pls. 7, 15, a). As a rule, the
cooking vessels are shaped like small ollas. Under unusual shapes fall
all the types and forms which are not of the first three classes, such
as terraced (prayer-meal) bowls, double-mouthed vessels, double bowls or
“baskets”, and vessels with handles.
The moulding of each of the above forms may be said to consist of four
principal steps: the making of the base, the building of the walls, the
shaping, and the finishing. Very briefly, the process is as follows: The
potter first forms a pancake-shaped pat of paste from six to eight
inches in diameter; this she presses into the mould, or puki, to form a
base. Then the walls of the vessel are built up by the addition of
successive ropes, or rolls, of paste laid one upon another. The small
bowls are the only exception, for they are formed in the hands of the
potter from a single lump. In some cases the building is done all at one
time; in others, and always with the larger vessels, a few rolls are
added, then the piece is set aside to dry a little before the addition
of a few more rolls. The potter usually builds two or more vessels at
once in order to permit work upon one while the other is undergoing a
brief period of drying. The preliminary shaping of the vessel is done
either in the course of the building or after the building has been
completed. The obliteration of the junctions between the rolls and of
finger-marks is accomplished with the kajepe, or gourd-spoon, and
further use of this implement aids in giving the vessel its shape. The
final step, the finishing, consists of going over the entire vessel
carefully, first with the kajepe, then with the fingers, to remove
slight irregularities to even the lip and rim. The finishing is a slow,
exacting process, and the difference between the artist and the mere
pot-maker comes out at this stage of the work.
The moulding, although usually done in the house, may also take place in
some shady spot outdoors. If a woman begins her moulding in the morning,
she will commonly devote the entire day to it. By evening she will have
completed from five to thirty vessels, the number depending partly upon
the size of the pieces and partly upon the rapidity with which she
works.
The potter sits upon her heels on some kind of mat; it may be a
sheepskin with the wool side up, a piece of canvas, or a small woven
rug. Her attitude is changed only when stiffness requires it. Thereupon
she sits with her feet out in front of her; or with one leg bent, the
foot flat on the ground, the knee beside her shoulder, and with the
other leg under her or fully flexed in front with both the knee and
foot upon the floor. Toward the end of the day the potter usually sits
against a wall to rest her back, for any one of the postures assumed is
tiring. At the end of the day the women frequently complain of stiff
backs and sore abdominal muscles, caused by the almost constant stooping
posture. Some potters cover their laps with shawls, others wear aprons,
and still others use no protection whatever for their clothing.
When the potter is sitting upon her heels, the mould, or puki, is laid
directly in front of her upon the floor. If she is sitting with her legs
extended, it is either held in the lap or placed close to her right
side. In the house the puki rests directly upon the hard earthen floor;
outdoors, a short board is placed under it to prevent its constant
turning from wearing a hole in the relatively softer ground. In the puki
is sprinkled a thin layer of temper or wood-ashes to prevent the vessel
from sticking to it. At the right of the potter, within arm’s reach, on
a canvas or a piece of cloth, is a mass of prepared clay. Rarely this
reserve paste is on the left. If the paste is in constant use, it is not
covered unless exposed to the sun; when, however, the moulding is
abandoned for even a few minutes, a corner of the canvas or cloth is
thrown over it. A small lard-pail partly filled with water is an
indispensable accessory during moulding. This is usually kept between
the potter and the paste; occasionally it is on the left, sometimes near
the puki beside the potter’s right knee. The gourd moulding spoons, or
kajepes, are also placed within easy reach, on the floor near the puki,
beside the waterpail, or in the pail itself. The potter is then ready to
begin moulding.
The first step is to ascertain by a little handling whether the paste is
of the proper consistency. If it was kneaded the day before, it may
prove to be too dry; in such a case the hands are well moistened and
perhaps a little water is sprinkled on the paste; it is then rekneaded
for a few minutes. Then a handful is scooped out of the mass with the
right hand. If the first handful is not sufficient, a second scoop gives
the required amount. It is next worked with the hands for half a minute
to five minutes; if it is of just the right consistency, it is hardly
worked at all; if it is too dry, the hands are occasionally dipped in
water while it is being worked; if it is too wet, kneading continues
until it is sufficiently dry. There are three distinct movements in this
final working of the paste. First, the handful is pinched and squeezed
by opening and closing the hands; if any gritty particle is encountered,
it is picked out with the thumb and forefinger of the right hand and
snapped upon the floor. The second movement consists in rolling the
paste between the two flattened hands. When the roll is about six inches
long, it is doubled and rerolled. This may be repeated from two to
half-a-dozen times. Occasionally this step is entirely omitted,
especially when a pat is being made. In the third movement the paste,
now a spherical lump, is slapped back and forth between the cupped
hands, which are held from six to eight inches apart. Sometimes this
third movement precedes the second. The handful of paste is now ready to
be made into a pat.
There are two ways of forming a pat. In the first one, the spherical
lump is held on the open left hand and pounded flat with the right fist;
from time to time it is turned a few degrees by a slight tossing motion.
It is then finished by patting
[Illustration: PLATE 12
a. Kneading clay preparatory to modeling a vessel.
b. Bowl-moulding, primary stages. 1, Base formed in mould, edge crimped
to receive first roll (cf. pl. 13, a); 2, Walls built to full height; 3,
The same piece after shaping and smoothing.]
[Illustration: PLATE 13
a
Applying the first roll of clay to the base. The roll is held in the
left hand, and is flattened and pinched into place in the inside of the
rim by the fingers of the right hand.
b
A bowl-base to which four rolls of clay have been added; the potter is
making a new roll. Note the junctions of the roll on the interior of the
vessel.]
it with the flat right hand until it is fairly smooth and of uniform
thickness; in doing this the pat is turned by slapping it from the left
hand to the right and back again. During this interchange, through the
natural placing of the hands, the pat is turned through an angle of
ninety to one hundred and twenty degrees. When the pat has been
completely formed by this method, it is like a large pancake, six to
eight inches in diameter and from three-eighths to half an inch thick.
It is then pressed firmly into the puki, and the edge is turned up and
crimped with the thumb and first two fingers of each hand to form a
slight rim (pl. 12, b, 1).
In the second method, the spherical lump of paste is first pounded with
the heel and then with the upper knuckles of the right hand; it is
turned meanwhile by the tossing motion of the left hand. The next
movement is the same as in the corresponding stage of the first method,
namely, patting the paste with the flat right hand while turning it by
transferring it to the right hand and back. Finally, before the pat is
put into the puki, the edge is bent up and smoothed off a little, so
that a shallow flat circular tray is formed instead of the slab obtained
by the first method. This tray is then placed in the puki, where it is
pressed down very firmly with either the heel of the hand or the balls
of the fingers, in order to insure a solid uniform base and to expel any
air-bubbles in the paste.
Another handful of clay is now scooped out of the mass on the canvas to
the right and worked to the proper consistency as before. From the
resulting spherical lump the potter very skillfully forms a roll of
uniform diameter by a backward and forward motion of her two hands
placed palms together (pl. 13, b).[24] There seems to be a tendency for
the first part of the roll to be of slightly smaller diameter than the
last part; if this occurs, the roll is reversed and partially rerolled.
One end is then taken in the right hand, while the left hand holds it
near the other at a point chosen to prevent too much sagging at the
middle. The potter then places the end which is in her right hand
against the inside of that part of the edge of the pat nearest her.[25]
The roll is pressed against the edge just enough to hold it in place
(see pl. 13, a). The thumb is on the exterior, the fingers on the
interior of the edge. Usually only the first two fingers are used,
although the third finger is occasionally brought into contact with the
paste. Then, as the puki is revolved counterclockwise,[26] the rest of
the roll is pressed against the edge of the pat. If the roll is not long
enough completely to encircle the pat, another is made and placed on it
in a similar manner. When the edge has thus been completely encircled,
the unused remainder of the roll is pinched off and tossed back on the
mass of paste on the canvas. The potter then pinches the roll more
firmly to the edge of the pat. This is done with both hands. The thumbs,
almost touching, are on the exterior, the fingers on the interior of the
vessel. The puki is usually moved counterclockwise, although the same
potter will sometimes revolve it clockwise. During this process of
pinching, the roll is flattened until it assumes in cross-section the
shape of a very much elongated ellipse (fig. 6, b). An attempt is made
to keep the thickness of the side as nearly uniform as possible, and in
order to accomplish this it is often necessary for the hands to be moved
back over a part already flattened.
The diameter of the rolls, except for cooking-pots, varies from half an
inch to slightly over an inch, according to the size of the vessel being
built, and the individual doing the building. When a roll is pressed
against the interior of the rim of the growing vessel,[27] from a half
to three-quarters of it lies below the level of the rim (see fig. 6, a).
Then, when the roll is flattened, the junction-plane between it and the
preceding roll will not be horizontal, but will slope downward sharply
[Illustration: FIG. 6. Diagramatic sections of a bowl on the mould.
a. Base made and first roll applied to inner side of rim. b. First roll
flattened and welded on. c. Second roll applied. d. Second roll
flattened and welded on.]
from the exterior (see fig. 6, b, d), thus producing a broad holding
surface and minimizing the risk of the vessel’s cracking along the
junction-plane. In other words, the junction-line between any two rolls
on the outside wall of the vessel is considerably higher than the
corresponding line on the inside. The flattened rolls, in all but
cooking-pots, are from an inch and a half to two inches wide, but
because of the overlapping just described the distance between the
junction-lines is considerably less (see pl. 13, b, and pl. 15, a).
During the process of flattening the roll, some potters obliterate the
junction-line on the exterior by rubbing it with the first and second
finger of the right hand, and by the addition of small pellets of paste
in the more conspicuous indentations. Others consider it unnecessary to
obliterate this line during the building of the vessel, in spite of the
fact that the roll may break away because of not being firmly welded.
Certain women smooth the temporary rim after flattening each roll,
others do not. When the flattening has been finished, the puki has made
a second complete revolution, and the junction of the two ends of the
roll is again directly in front of the potter; but if a few additional
touches are required she may again shift the puki in one direction or
another. No potter pays any attention whatever to the location of the
junction points of the ends of the rolls; in successive rolls,
therefore, they may lie directly above one another, or they may be
distributed about the circumference of the vessel (pl. 13, b). When one
roll has been completely welded on, flattened out, and incorporated into
the vessel, another roll is formed, and is applied in exactly the same
manner. Thus the building proceeds to the height at which the shaping is
begun. The steps so far enumerated are the same for both bowls and
ollas. The further treatment of the vessel varies slightly, according to
the shape desired.
Stevenson, describing the moulding of vessels at Zuñi, in 1879, wrote:
“When the clayey dough is ready to be used, a sufficient quantity is
rolled into a ball. The dough, if worked by a careful artist, is first
tested as to its fitness for molding by putting a piece of the paste to
the tongue, the sensitiveness of which is such as to detect any gritty
substance or particles, when the fingers fail to do so. The ball is
hollowed out with the fingers into the shape of a bowl (see pl. 29, a),
this form constituting the foundation for all varieties of earthenware,
and assumes the desired form by the addition of strips of clay; all
traces of the addition of each strip are removed before another is
added,[28] by the use of a small trowel fashioned from a piece of gourd
or fragment of pottery, the only tool employed in the manufacture of
pottery. The bottoms of old water jars and bowls form stands for the
articles while being worked by the potter” (see pl. 29).[29]
Mrs. Stevenson, writing later, also of the Zuñis, said: “In beginning
the work a sufficient quantity is first made into a ball and then
hollowed out with the fingers until is assumes a conventional bowl
shape, which serves as the foundation to be afterward built up and
elaborated into any desired shape. The vessel is then formed by the
successive additions of strips of the paste long enough to encircle the
bowl, each layer being pressed on the brim with the fingers and
accurately fitted, the trowel being then skillfully used to finish the
joining and to remove all traces of the original separation of the
strips. Most of the work of remodelling the vessel into its final shape
is done on the inside with a trowel, this implement being used on the
outside chiefly to smooth the surface. The clay, if it has been properly
worked, possesses sufficient tenacity and plasticity to admit of being
pressed and scraped without cracking.”[30]
The following quotation is of interest as showing how closely modern
studio-practice, undoubtedly evolved experimentally, resembles Pueblo
Indian methods: “The clay for building should be rather soft as it is
apt to dry quickly on handling. A plaster bat (mould) should be made. It
is first necessary to roll out the clay into cords which should be a
little thicker than the proposed walls are to be. These cords should be
as uniform as possible and should be rolled quickly to avoid undue
hardening. It is best to roll them as required. A roll of clay is taken,
one end laid in the center of the bat and the rest is coiled around it
in a spiral line. When the disc so formed has reached the proper size,
the coils are gently rubbed over with the fingers until they have
thoroughly united and the lines of the spiral have disappeared. The clay
disc may now be turned over and the rubbing continued on the other side.
The circle is cut true and a new coil is laid on the outer edge, thus
making a shallow circular tray. In raising the walls it is best to pinch
off the roll of clay when one circle has been completed, and the new
roll should be begun at another point so that all the joints will not be
at the same place. This plan is better than coiling a long roll in a
spiral, for in this case one side of the piece will be higher than the
other.
“After three rolls have been laid in position, the wall, both inside and
out, should be worked like the bottom so that the rolls will disappear
and the clay be welded uniformly together. This should be done without
water or with as little as possible. The use of water is very tempting.
It makes the clay so smooth and seems to help, but it will inevitably
make the work sloppy and will tend to soften the walls.
“After three or four rolls have been worked in, the piece should be laid
aside for some hours to stiffen. If this be not done the weight of the
second building will cause the work to sag and fall out of shape. For
this reason it is well to have two or three pieces in hand at once so
that there need be no waiting. When the cylinder is of sufficient height
it should be allowed to become quite stiff and then the irregularities
should be corrected with a little soft clay which is worked into the
joints. The whole surface may now be gone over with tools and brought to
the required finish.”[31]
Before describing in detail the moulding of the various sorts of
vessels, the accidents which are associated with this process should be
discussed. These may result from one of two causes, the presence of
foreign matter in the paste or imperfect moulding.
If the clay has been carefully sifted, as it usually is, there should be
very little foreign matter in the paste. It is, however, impossible to
remove entirely all gravel or stones fragment. If gravel is allowed to
remain, it will cause the vessel-walls to scale during firing because of
the difference in the rates of expansion under heat of stone and paste.
In order to prevent this, the potter while moulding is constantly on the
lookout for these small particles, which may be discovered at any stage
of the work. They are at once picked out of the vessel, even if it is
all but finished. The irregular hollow formed is then filled with a
small pellet of fresh paste and smoothed over. The women say that a bit
of hard clay does not cause flaking as does a piece of gravel or a stone
splinter. Another kind of foreign matter is an air-bubble, which if left
in the vessel will cause the same form of accident, because of the
difference in the rates of expansion of air and clay. In order to
eliminate these small air-bubbles, the pat is pressed down hard upon the
puki
[Illustration: PLATE 14
a
Levelling and smoothing the rim of a bowl after it has been scraped with
the kajepe, or gourd spoon. The left hand serves to keep the piece
turning and to support the plastic wall.
b
Use of the kajepe in shaping a vessel; the left hand supports the wall
within, while the kajepe, held in the right hand, thins the top of the
wall and gently presses it inward.]
and the rolls are carefully pinched at every point about the vessel. A
skillful potter is able to feel an air-bubble even if it is covered with
a layer of clay: such a bubble is pricked and the resulting hollow is
filled as before.
If the moulding is imperfect, that is, if the rolls are not carefully
welded, a weak spot occurs at the junction, which probably contains a
thin layer of air. When the vessel is fired, it cracks along this line
and is ruined. Such accidents seem to occur most commonly at the bases
of large vessels, either because the first roll was not sufficiently
welded to the base, or because the pat itself was not pressed into the
puki with sufficient force. Since flaws between the rolls cannot be
discovered until the firing, they cannot be corrected as in the case of
foreign bodies in the clay.
BOWLS
From two to eight rolls may be used to form a bowl, according to its
destined size and shape. When the building has been completed, the piece
is in the form of a cylinder, with sides either vertical or very
slightly flaring (pl. 12, b, 2, and pl. 13, b). As a rule the
fingerprints and the irregular horizontal junction-lines may be seen
both on the interior and exterior. The next step is the finishing of the
temporary rim. This is done with the right hand, the fingers of which
assume much the same position that they would for holding a pencil (pl.
14, a). The thumb is on the interior of the rim, the forefinger on the
top, and the middle finger on the outer edge. The thumb and middle
finger are used as guides to help keep the rim uniform in thickness. The
forefinger removes the paste from the higher parts of the rim and
transfers it to the hollows. The fingers do not move with respect to
each other except to exert slight pressure. The play of the right hand
during this process is a gliding backward-forward motion repeated many
times, while at the same time the puki is usually kept revolving
counterclockwise by the left hand, which also is generally but not
always, used to steady the side of the vessel. Occasionally the same
potter will turn the puki clockwise. In the former case the right hand
is kept in the twelve-to-two-o’clock sector; in the latter in the
six-to-eight-o’clock sector. If the rim is smoothed hastily, as it
sometimes is at this stage, the puki may not be turned at all. This
completes the building of the bowl, which is then set aside for a few
minutes, while another is begun.
The next step is the shaping. This is done with a kajepe, or gourd
spoon. The kajepe should always be damp when used, and for that reason
is often kept in the water-pail. It is somewhat difficult to describe in
detail the use of the kajepe, for no two potters work with it in exactly
the same way. Often the same potter will show variations in her method
of handling the tool.
Each woman has from four to a dozen kajepes beside her while she is
moulding. These implements vary much both in size and shape (pl. 11).
Most of them are circular or elliptical with all edges convex, although
every potter has at least one with a concave edge. Generally the
smaller, circular kajepes are used on the interior of bowls, the oval
ones on the exterior, and the one with a concave edge on the exterior at
the shoulder, where it would be difficult to use the other types. As a
rule the larger kajepes serve for the larger vessels. A potter
occasionally changes kajepes in the midst of her work, usually because
of the edge, which may be rougher on one than on another. The kajepes
are held at an angle of from thirty to sixty degrees to the tangent of
the bowl at the point of contact, according to the curvature of the part
of the vessel being worked upon.
The kajepe is always used first on the inside. This is done in order to
press out the sides and to give the bowl something of its final shape
before the paste becomes too dry. The work begins at the bottom of the
vessel and slowly advances toward the top; the bowl gradually assumes a
spherical shape, the sides being forced farthest out about half way
between the base and the rim. During this process the outside surface,
since it is being expanded, begins to show innumerable small cracks. The
strokes of the kajepe on the interior are short and always nearly
horizontal, the implement being pulled towards the body. During this
first use of the kajepe all traces of the junction-lines between the
rolls are removed from the inside of the vessel. The tool is always held
in the right hand, and the left hand, which is constantly used on the
exterior as a brace and stop, is placed directly opposite the spot on
the inside which is being worked. One woman scrapes in the
seven-to-ten-o’clock sector, turning the bowl clockwise; that is,
working from the scraped to the unscraped surface. The vessel is turned
through about sixty degrees at each change of position, and about a
third of the surface just scraped is gone over again by the strokes on
the new sector. Another works in the nine-to-twelve-o’clock sector,
turning the bowl counterclockwise, that is, working from unscraped to
scraped surface; in doing this she turns the puki five or six times
through an angle of between sixty and eighty degrees for each turn,
before the entire interior has been gone over.
The kajepe is then applied to the exterior of the bowl (pl. 14, b). The
concave surface of the kajepe is preferred for the first of the exterior
scraping, although the convex surface is not infrequently used. The
strokes begin again at the base. At first, when the kajepe comes in
contact with the puki, the strokes are very nearly vertical. A little
higher on the bowl they become diagonal. Near the rim the strokes are
almost horizontal, but still have a perceptible downward slant. The
kajepe is always pulled toward the body. The stroke on the exterior is
from four to five inches, generally a little longer than that on the
interior. During this step one woman turns the puki counterclockwise,
working in the two-to-four-o’clock sector; another turns it in the same
direction, but works in the four-to-six-o’clock sector. In both cases
the strokes are from the scraped to the unscraped surface. Although the
larger portion of the actual shaping of the bowl is done from the
interior, the drawing in of the upper part to form a constricted mouth
is done with the kajepe on the exterior, when the step last described is
nearing completion. As when working on the interior, the left hand again
acts as a brace and a stop, but this time on the inside of the bowl.[32]
Usually only the ends of the fingers rest against the side. Upon the
completion of the use of the kajepe on the outside for the first time,
all traces of the coil-marks and of the fine cracks developed during the
interior scraping are removed, but the surface is still rather rough
(pl. 14, b; also 12, b, 3). After both surfaces have been gone over for
the first time with the kajepe, the rim is once more trued up in the
manner already described. Then, depending upon the stiffness of the
paste, the piece may be set aside to harden a little or the work may
continue without interruption.
The women hold the kajepe with fingers either slightly bent, or nearly
fully flexed; in the latter position the tool is grasped between the
thumb and bent forefinger. Just before using, the kajepe is dipped in
water; and the edge is then drawn across the palm of the left hand to
remove excess water before it is applied to the bowl. After perhaps a
dozen strokes, the paste which has collected on the tool is removed by a
dexterous motion: the inner side of the thumb of the left hand is run
along the edge of the kajepe to collect the paste; then the inner side
of the forefinger of the same hand is run from the base to the tip of
the thumb. This brings the paste to the ends of the two fingers in the
form of a pellet, which is thrown upon the mass on the canvas. Since the
paste has a tendency to stick to the fingers, the potter must throw it
with a jerk or snap.
When the kajepe has been used once over the entire surface, it is
usually reversed so as to present its convex side to the bowl, made a
little damper than for the previous scraping, and the whole process
repeated in detail for both the interior and exterior. This results in
better symmetry and a smoother surface. The rim is again finished in the
manner already described. The walls of the bowl have by this time been
thinned to about one-half or two-thirds of their original thickness, all
major irregularities and rough spots have been removed, the vessel is
fully shaped, and only the finishing touches are needed before it is
ready to be sun-dried. The paste now has the consistency of soft thick
leather.
The first step in the finishing sometimes consists in again going over
both surfaces with a wet kajepe, to smooth them still more. Occasionally
only the exterior is so treated. Then the bowl is turned repeatedly,
while the potter touches small areas with the convex surface of the
kajepe. At this point particular attention is given to the bottom of the
interior; it may be retouched with the kajepe, or simply smoothed over
with the ball of the thumb or forefinger. If the surface seems slightly
uneven, small pellets of paste are rubbed into the bottom and then
levelled down with the kajepe. The bowl on the puki is then placed upon
the palm of the left hand, held at eye level, and revolved slowly, while
the potter examines it for rough spots and slight irregularities of
contour, which when found are smoothed over with the forefinger of the
right hand. After being replaced upon the floor, the bowl may be gently
pressed between the hands in order slightly to improve its symmetry.
Finally the rim is smoothed for the last time, little pellets of paste
being added, if necessary, to fill in shallow depressions, and great
care is taken to make it as regular and smooth as possible. It is
obviously impossible to describe in detail the exact procedure followed
in this finishing process, for the method adopted is chosen according to
the needs of the individual vessel. After all this is done, the piece is
ready to be sun-dried. Its present appearance is very different from
that which it had when the building was completed (compare pl. 12, b, 2,
and b, 3).
The moulding of bowls less than four inches in diameter is a very simple
matter compared with that of the larger ones, for there is no use of
puki, rolls, or kajepe. After working the paste in the hands the
resulting lump is formed into a flat spheroid. The forefinger of the
right hand is inserted in the centre of this, the clay held horizontally
and slowly revolved by a slight tossing rotary motion of the left hand.
The forefinger of the right hand enlarges the hole and gradually shapes
the mass into the desired form, thinning the sides at the same time. If
the resulting bowl is too high, the rim is pinched off with the thumb
and fore-finger of the right hand. When the proper shape and thickness
have been attained, the little bowl is held upright in the left hand,
while the fingers of the right smooth the sides and the rim. When
completed it is set on a board to dry. Sometimes one of the larger of
these bowls is placed in a small puki and reshaped with the kajepe. One
woman used the kajepe on the interior of the vessel while it rested upon
her left hand. The bowl, when treated in this way, and finished in the
same manner as the larger bowls, was noticeably a better piece of
moulding than the average small piece.
The time consumed in moulding bowls is variable, depending on the
dexterity and speed of the potter and to a somewhat lesser degree upon
the sort of vessel being moulded. Comparisons between potters are apt to
be misleading, for no two make bowls of exactly the same size or
exercise the same amount of care in finishing, which, from the point of
view of time consumed, is the most variable phase of the moulding. One
potter moulded a wide-mouthed bowl of four rolls in twenty minutes;
another finished two spherical bowls of six rolls each in forty-eight
minutes; a third potter, the swiftest of the three, finished a
wide-mouthed bowl of two rolls after it had been under her hands just
fourteen and one-half minutes. The first potter moulded six of the small
bowls (less than four inches in diameter) in fifty-five minutes,
averaging nine minutes to each, but to refinish one of them with a
kajepe she took thirteen minutes. The third potter moulded one of the
small type of bowls in four minutes.
In considering in detail the time consumed in moulding, the work of
Maria Martinez was studied. She is the swiftest and most dexterous
potter of San Ildefonso, and moulds in a quarter to a third less time
than the slowest of the others. In three hours she turned out ten bowls,
averaging about seven inches in diameter, of the constricted-mouthed and
similar types; this is an average of one in eighteen minutes. She was
working constantly, first on one, then on another. Subsequently she
moulded six two-roll constricted-mouthed bowls in one hour and
twenty-six minutes, an average of fourteen and a third minutes each. The
various steps in the moulding of two bowls are recorded in Table I,
which gives the actual time consumed in minutes and seconds from the
beginning of the first of the pair until the two were finished and set
aside. In Table II the growth and treatment of a single bowl are given
in more detail, with the time in minutes and seconds that it was under
the hands of the potter. This piece was one of five constricted-mouthed
bowls of three rolls each which were moulded in sixty-four minutes, an
average of twelve minutes, forty-eight seconds for each vessel.
TABLE I
Bowl A, constricted-mouthed bowl, diam. 8 in.; Bowl B, wide-mouthed
bowl, diam. 7 in.
_Min._ _Sec._
{ 0.00 Bowl A -- clay picked up from pile
{ 2.00 “ “ -- pat in puki and pinched up
4.30 { 3.00 “ “ -- first roll on and pinched flat
{ 4.00 “ “ -- second roll on and pinched flat
{ 4.30 “ “ -- rim smoothed and bowl set aside
(_no pause_)
{ 4.30 Bowl B -- clay picked up from pile
{ 5.30 “ “ -- pat in puki and pinched up
2.50 { 6.20 “ “ -- first roll on and pinched flat
{ 7.10 “ “ -- second roll on and pinched flat
{ 7.20 “ “ -- rim smoothed and bowl set aside
(_pause of 40 seconds_)
{ 8.00 Bowl A -- picked up again
{ 8.30 “ “ -- interior scraping stopped
{ 9.15 “ “ -- exterior scraping stopped
{ 9.45 “ “ -- first rim smoothing stopped
{ 11.00 “ “ -- first interior smoothing stopped
8.00 { 11.30 “ “ -- first exterior smoothing stopped
{ 12.45 “ “ -- second rim smoothing stopped
{ 13.45 “ “ -- second interior smoothing stopped
{ 14.30 “ “ -- second exterior smoothing stopped
{ 15.15 “ “ -- third rim smoothing stopped
{ 16.00 “ “ -- finishing touches stopped; bowl completed
(_pause of 15 seconds_)
{ 16.15 Bowl B -- picked up again
{ 16.45 “ “ -- interior scraping stopped
{ 17.00 “ “ -- exterior scraping stopped
{ 18.00 “ “ -- first rim smoothing stopped
{ 18.30 “ “ -- first interior smoothing stopped
5.05 { 19.00 “ “ -- second rim smoothing stopped
{ 19.45 “ “ -- second interior smoothing stopped
{ 20.45 “ “ -- touching up stopped
{ 21.00 “ “ -- third rim smoothing stopped
{ 21.15 “ “ -- third interior smoothing stopped
{ 21.20 “ “ -- bowl completed
Total, Bowl A--12 minutes, 30 seconds
Total, Bowl B--7 minutes, 55 seconds
TABLE II
Small, constricted-mouthed bowl
_Min._ _Sec._
00.00 -- clay picked up from pile
00.15 -- pat put in puki
01.00 -- clay for first roll picked up
01.15 -- one end of first roll pinched on pat
01.50 -- first roll flattened, and clay for second roll picked up
02.10 -- one end of second roll pinched on pat
02.40 -- second roll flattened, and clay for third roll picked up
02.50 -- one end of third roll pinched on pat
03.30 -- third roll flattened, and rim smoothing begun
03.50 -- bowl set aside
(_14 minutes, 10 seconds, elapsed_)
03.50 -- interior kajepe-scraping begun
04.25 -- exterior kajepe-scraping begun
04.55 -- rim smoothing begun
05.20 -- bowl set aside
(_18 minutes, 30 seconds, elapsed_)
05.20 -- interior kajepe-smoothing begun
06.00 -- small roll placed around edge of interior base and patted down
06.40 -- interior kajepe-smoothing begun
06.55 -- exterior kajepe-smoothing begun, lip turned in
07.45 -- rim smoothing begun
08.50 -- exterior kajepe-smoothing begun
09.25 -- interior kajepe-smoothing begun
10.05 -- rim smoothing begun
10.50 -- bowl held at eye level, exterior kajepe-smoothing begun
11.17 -- bowl placed on floor, interior kajepe-smoothing begun
11.45 -- moulding completed, bowl set aside
OLLAS
In the moulding of ollas the first step is the building of the lower
part of the body to a height of four or five rings in the same manner as
in bowl-construction. Since ollas have a larger diameter than bowls,
more than one roll is needed to form a complete ring about the growing
edge. The number of rolls per ring varies from one and a half to four,
depending upon the size of the olla and the part worked upon. When this
first building has been completed (pl. 15, a), the rim is smoothed
somewhat and the scraping and shaping are at once begun.
The use of the kajepe in the shaping of ollas is identical in all
details with that described above in discussing the moulding of bowls.
The roll-junctions and the fingerprints are entirely removed and the
sides of the vessel are flared a little. Great care is taken not to
flare the sides too much, for the paste at this stage is still rather
soft, and if the sides are flared unduly they collapse outward of their
own weight. When the preliminary shaping has been finished the rim is
smoothed a
[Illustration: PLATE 15
SUCCESSIVE STAGES IN THE MOULDING OF AN OLLA
a. Lower wall built up of rings of clay. b. Sides smoothed and flared by
use of the kajepe. c. Sides further flared and more carefully smoothed.
d. Shoulder partly formed. e. Shoulder finished. f. Neck built. g, h.
Neck flared and final smoothing completed; the vessels have been shifted
in the moulds to allow work on lower sides.]
little, and the olla is placed in the sun to stiffen. The moulding has
now reached the second stage (pl. 15, b).
The vessel remains in the sun from twenty to thirty minutes. This period
may be extended to as much as an hour and a half, if the vessel is in
the shade or if other things occupy the potter’s time. During all the
drying periods, at intervals varying from five to fifteen minutes, the
potter dips her right hand in the water of the lard-pail, and moistens
the rim of the partly finished olla in order to keep it soft enough to
permit perfect welding when additional rolls are added. While one vessel
is drying, the potter is usually occupied with another. In case the work
on the latter is finished before the former is dry enough, the potter
simply waits, or finds some other work with which to occupy herself
until it is ready.
The test of the condition of the olla after this short drying is to pat
the side gently with the balls of the fingers. The clay is now very much
like soft leather. The degree of resistance offered by the side
indicates the condition of the paste. Of course the value of such a test
depends entirely upon the knowledge and sense of touch possessed by the
potter, two qualities which can be gained only through long experience.
When the paste in the olla, which now has the shape of an open-mouthed
bowl, has reached the proper degree of firmness, the vessel is brought
in and the shaping continued. By using the kajepe first on the interior
and then on the exterior, the sides are flared still more until the
desired shape for the lower part of the olla has been obtained. Then,
after a hasty smoothing of the rim, the vessel, now in the third stage
(pl. 15, c), is again set aside to dry. When it has become firm enough
to support the weight of the new rolls to be added, the building is
continued. The temporary rim has been kept soft by the application of
water from time to time. The method of preparing this rim for the
application of the rings varies slightly with different potters. The rim
may be pinched into scallops between the thumb and forefinger of either
hand, usually the right, or it may be roughened by vertical strokes of
the kajepe on the exterior. In the former case the scallops may touch
one another (pl. 16, a), or they may be separated by a quarter to a half
inch of unpinched rim. When the kajepe is used, it also destroys the
original smoothness of the rim, producing an irregular, broken surface
to which the new roll can easily be welded.
The potter must now build that part of the olla which has the greatest
diameter. Each new ring of clay must therefore be of greater diameter
than those which preceded and those which will follow. Three or four
rather slender rolls are used to make such a ring. After two complete
rings have been placed on the vessel and flattened, the shaping is
begun. Gradually the new rim is drawn in until the shoulder of the olla
has been formed. Again the rim is smoothed before the vessel is set
aside. The moulding of the olla has now reached the fourth stage (pl.
15, d).
The olla is once more allowed to dry for about the same length of time
as before. During these successive dryings the presence or absence of
wind plays a considerable part in the length of time the vessel is
allowed to remain in the sun; for a stiff breeze will dry the paste
almost as quickly as the sun itself. The potters do not like to mould
ollas when there is much wind because the paste dries so quickly that
the vessel is ready to be taken up again before the second vessel, upon
which the potter is working, is ready to set aside. Occasionally, but by
no means always, the drying olla is turned so as to present a fresh
section of the side to the sun.
After testing with the hand the newly built part of the olla, to
determine its firmness, the vessel, if sufficiently dried, is taken to
the work-board and the building continued. The pinching of the rim is
done as before, two more rings are added, and their shaping is begun.
The rolls decrease very slowly in diameter. In shaping with the kajepe
only the newly added section of the vessel is treated. At this stage the
work becomes more difficult, for the two rings just added form the lower
part of the neck of the olla, and therefore constrict the mouth of the
partly finished vessel. If the paste is a little too soft, the newly
built section will sag when the shaping is begun. The vessel must then
be set aside at once until it reaches the proper degree of stiffness.
While using the kajepe on the exterior, during this stage of the
construction, the left hand is held inside the vessel not only as a
brace or stop, but also as a support for the incurving side. When the
scraping and smoothing have been finished, and the side has been given
the proper curve, the rim is smoothed a little before the vessel, now in
the fifth stage (pl. 15, e), is again set aside.
Half an hour or so later the building of the olla is completed by the
addition of one more ring. The rolls composing this ring are distinctly
more slender than the first rolls used in the vessel. When this ring has
been applied the rim is cursorily smoothed and the last shaping begun.
The final delicate contour of the vessel depends to a large extent upon
this final shaping near the rim. The kajepe is used with painstaking
care, and the work progresses slowly. A slight outward flare is given to
the lip by careful manipulation of the kajepe on the interior. When this
is completed, the olla has reached the sixth stage (pl. 15, f).
The finishing touches consist largely in going over the rim carefully
and adding pellets of paste when necessary, thus making its curve as
nearly uniform as possible. This process consumes a considerable amount
of time, for the work is done very painstakingly and slowly (pl. 17, a).
The vessel has now attained its final shape (pl. 15, g and h), and for
the last time is set out in the sun to dry.
The time taken to mould an olla is far greater than that necessary for a
bowl. The type of olla shown in the illustrations is about fourteen
inches in diameter at the shoulder. The potter who made these counted on
moulding two such ollas each day. On some days a little time was left in
the afternoon in which to make some smaller vessels, but no olla was
ever begun in the afternoon. Ollas were usually started between ten and
eleven o’clock in the morning and finished between half-past-three and
half-past-four in the afternoon. During the early morning the household
tasks had to be attended to; at noon about an hour was used in preparing
and eating lunch; and at various times during the day the children,
especially the baby, made it necessary for the potter to leave her work.
Table III, columns A and B, gives in detail the various steps in the
construction of two ollas, together with the time each vessel was
actually under the hands of the potter and the length of the intervals
in which the vessel was drying; columns C and D record two other ollas
on which the observations were less complete. As a rule it requires one
and a half
[Illustration: PLATE 16
a
Potter moulding an olla. The first roll at the shoulder has just been
added. The temporary rim has been pinched up with the thumb and
forefinger to provide a firm seat for the succeeding roll.
b
A potter of San Ildefonso. The costume is typical of the Rio Grande
Pueblos. With the exception of the shawl it is entirely of native
manufacture.]
hours’ work to mould an olla. In the case of olla A, the potter was
unfortunate in misjudging the proper consistency of the paste, which
delayed the construction of this vessel an entire half-hour, omitting
the periods of additional drying. The two ollas were begun at eleven
o’clock in the morning; the second of the two was set aside completed at
eight minutes past four in the afternoon.
It is said that it requires one whole day, and sometimes two, to mould a
single very large olla. The process is identical with that just
described. In the case of small ollas (such as those seen in pl. 18, a)
a single period of drying elapses between the construction of the body
and that of the neck. These small ollas can be moulded in a little less
than twice the time taken for a bowl of about the same diameter.
TABLE III
A B C D
_Min._ _Sec._
First clay picked up 00.00 00.00 00.00 00.00
Pat placed in puki 04.00 04.00
Second handful of clay picked up 04.30 05.30
First roll added 05.00 06.00
First ring flattened, second begun 06.45 08.30
Second ring flattened, third begun 09.00 10.00
Third ring flattened, fourth begun 11.30 12.30
Fourth ring flattened, fifth begun 15.00 16.45
Fifth ring flattened (Stage I,
pl. 15, a), inside scraping begun 18.30 20.00
Exterior scraping begun 21.00 21.30
Rim smoothed and interior
scraping begun 23.00 24.00
Rim smoothing begun 25.00 27.30
Set aside (Stage II, pl. 15, b) 26.00 29.00
_Time out_ 34.00 24.30
Interior smoothing, then exterior 26.00 29.00
Set aside (Stage III, pl. 15, c) 33.00 32.30
_Time out_ 53.00 59.00
Pinching of rim begun 33.00 32.30 33.00 33.00
Pinching of rim completed 34.15 33.30
First roll made 35.00 34.15
First roll pinched on, second begun 35.30 34.30
Second roll pinched on,
flattening begun 39.45 36.30
First ring flattened 41.00 37.30 37.00
Second ring flattened, rim
smoothing begun 45.00 41.30 41.00
Interior scraping begun 45.30 42.00 42.00
Exterior scraping begun 50.00 45.00 45.00
Rim smoothing begun 52.00 47.00
Interior smoothing begun 53.30 48.30 47.00
Exterior smoothing begun 55.00 49.30 52.00
Rim smoothing begun 57.00 50.15
Set aside (Stage IV, pl. 15, d) 58.00 50.45 54.00 55.00
_Time out_ 27.00 20.45 28.00 68.00
Pinching of rim begun 58.00 50.45 54.00 55.00
Pinching of rim completed 58.45 51.15
First roll completed 59.30 52.00
First ring flattened, second begun 64.00 56.45
Second ring on 66.15 59.45
Second ring flattened, rim
smoothing begun 67.15 60.30 61.00
Exterior scraping begun 68.00 60.45 61.15
Interior scraping begun 70.00 omitted omitted omitted
Set aside (clay too soft) 70.30 “ “ “
Rim smoothing begun omitted 63.00 “ “
Set aside omitted 63.45 “ “
_Time out_ 13.45 17.00 “ “
Interior scraping begun 70.30 63.45 64.00
Exterior smoothing begun 75.15 69.15
Rim smoothing begun 77.15 71.45
Set aside (Stage V, pl. 15, e) 79.15 73.30 69.00 67.00
_Time out_ 18.00 15.15 68.00 42.00
Interior smoothing begun 79.15 omitted omitted omitted
Exterior smoothing begun 83.45 “ “ “
Rim smoothing begun 84.15 “ “ “
Set aside 84.45 “ “ “
_Time out_ 33.00 “ “ “
Interior smoothing begun 84.45 “ “ “
Exterior smoothing begun 88.00 “ “ “
Set aside 89.45 “ “ “
_Time out_ 21.00 “ “ “
Pinching of rim begun 89.45 73.30 69.00 67.00
First roll put on 92.45 75.00
Ring flattened, rim smoothed,
exterior scraping begun 94.45 77.30 73.00
Interior scraping begun 97.45 79.00 76.00
Exterior smoothing begun 100.15 81.30
Interior smoothing begun
(Stage VI, pl. 15, f) 101.45 83.00
Exterior smoothing begun 102.45 omitted omitted omitted
Rim smoothing begun 103.30 84.30 84.00 83.00
Set aside (clay in rim
too soft) 105.15 omitted omitted omitted
_Time out_ 16.30 “ “ “
Interior and exterior
smoothing begun omitted “ “ 87.00
Rim finishing begun 105.15 90.30 91.00
Vessel completed
(Stage VII, pl. 15, g, h) 119.45 94.30 93.00 98.00
Total elapsed time from beginning: Ollas A and B, 5 hours, 7 minutes, 30
seconds; Ollas C and D, about 5 hours.
COOKING-VESSELS
The clay forming the paste of these pieces is called Apache clay, and is
very different from that employed in making ordinary ware (see p. 22);
it is used without the addition of any tempering material.
Just before moulding is started, the clay is carefully gone over in a
final search for small pebbles. The moulding differs only in detail from
that of vessels made from other kinds of paste. A pat very much thinner
than those described above is made and placed in the puki. The vessel is
built by the addition of rolls which are of smaller diameter than
usual--about three-eighths of an inch. When the body has been built to
the desired height, the scraping and smoothing with the kajepe are
begun. At first the vessel, like the others, is cylindrical; but the
scraping, first on the
[Illustration: PLATE 17
a. Putting the finishing touches on an olla. The potter’s left hand is
supporting the soft neck while she shapes it from the outside with the
kajepe. In front is a pile of base-moulds (pukis) for small bowls; at
the potter’s right is a lard-pail of water and a reserve supply of clay
wrapped in a canvas.
b. Applying a horizontal handle to a small olla; two gourd spoons
(kajepes) are lying on the table.]
interior and then on the exterior, thins the sides and gives it a
spherical shape. After the smoothing the sides are from one-eighth to
three-sixteenths of an inch thick, much thinner than the walls of
vessels made of other kinds of paste. When the body has assumed the
desired shape, additional rolls are added to form the lip, which is
scraped, smoothed, and flared with the kajepe. During the entire period
of moulding small pebbles are constantly being found and removed, for
Apache clay contains a great many more pebbles than the other clays.
After the finishing touches have been completed, the rim is indented,
and a vertical handle is added as described below (see p. 50).
The indenting of the rim is done with the thumb and forefinger of the
right hand. The thumb is placed under the flaring rim, with the nail
vertical; the forefinger rests upon the lip, the nail horizontal. The
fingers are in about the position they would assume were the potter
holding a pencil. A gentle downward pressure of the hand indents the rim
slightly, the nail of the thumb leaving a small mark on the under side
of the lip. This pressure is repeated at intervals of about
three-quarters of an inch until the entire lip has been given an
indented or undulating edge.
The construction described above is that of a small olla about six
inches in diameter. Larger ollas are built in several stages in the same
manner as ollas made of the other forms of paste.[33]
The time consumed in the moulding of cooking vessels was noted in only
one case. Six rolls were used for the body and two for the lip. Before
the kajepe was used for the first time the cylindrical body was five
inches in diameter and four and a half inches high. Table IV gives the
time of construction, divided according to the various steps of the
work.
TABLE IV
_Min._ _Sec._
00.00 -- Kneading of small handful of clay to eliminate pebbles begun
04.00 -- Pat placed in puki, kneading of clay for rolls begun
12.00 -- Making of first roll begun
19.00 -- Six rolls added and flattened, interior scraping begun
20.30 -- Exterior scraping begun, later interior smoothing begun,
followed shortly by exterior smoothing
26.00 -- Seventh roll added
29.00 -- Eighth roll flattened and interior smoothing begun
29.30 -- Exterior smoothing begun
32.00 -- Rim smoothing begun
38.00 -- Finishing touches begun, followed by indenting rim
46.00 -- Moulding completed, vessel set aside
9.00 -- _Time out_
46.00 -- Work upon handle begun
49.00 -- Handle finished, vessel completed
PRAYER-MEAL BOWLS
Prayer-meal bowls are of two sorts, bowl-shaped with a terraced
elevation on one side of the rim, and rectangular, or box-like, with a
terraced elevation at either end. In the construction of a rectangular
prayer-meal bowl, no puki is employed. The pat, either circular or
rectangular in shape, is made as usual. It is placed upon a board, care
being taken to press it down hard, and the rectangular shape is
accentuated by the pinching up of the edge. A thin layer of temper may,
or may not, be sprinkled on the board before the pat is placed upon it.
To this pat are added two or three rolls in the manner already
described. When it is desired to turn the vessel, the board upon which
it rests is turned. The board is either held in the lap or rests on the
top of a low stool. In scraping and shaping the vessel one potter began
to use the kajepe on the exterior first, then proceeded to the interior;
another reversed the process. The stroke on the exterior is vertical at
the corners and nearly horizontal on the sides; on the interior it is
nearly horizontal. When the building of the vessel has been completed,
the rim is smoothed, and the corners
[Illustration: FIG. 7. The three stages in making the terraced end of a
prayer-meal bowl: a. End built to full height. b. Notches cut with a
taut string. c. Bits of clay removed from the notches and edges of
terracing smoothed down.]
made straight. The bowl may be pressed lightly between the hands to
improve the symmetry and to make all the corners more nearly right
angles; it is then set aside for a while.
The next step is the construction of the terraced ends. A single short
roll is attached to the interior of the rim at one end. This roll is
pressed flat, and smoothed with the kajepe, first on the interior and
then on the exterior. The sharp edges are softened, the rim is smoothed,
and the junctions of this new portion with the sides are rounded off.
The result is a flattened semicircular vertical projection at the end
(see fig. 7, a). The other end is then treated in the same manner. The
bowl is now ready to have the terraces put in. There are two methods of
doing this. One potter uses a long string in making the first marks. The
string is stretched taut horizontally, parallel to the length of the
bowl. It is then pressed lightly on both ends at the same time, first on
one side of the centre, then on the other. The distance between the
hands is next shortened, and two notches are cut on either side of the
centre of the end with this string, which is still held horizontally.
Similar notches are cut in the other end. Each end of the bowl is now as
shown in fig. 7, b. Another potter does not make the initial marks in
the two ends simultaneously. Holding the end of the bowl towards her,
she lightly marks the lines to be cut with her fingernail. Then, picking
up the string and following the marks made by her fingernail, the
notches are cut in the way described.
As soon as the notches have been cut, the small triangular pieces of
clay are removed, the edges rounded with the thumb and forefinger of the
right hand, and the corners made into curves. Small pellets of clay may
be added if necessary. After a few finishing touches with the forefinger
the terracing of the ends of the bowl is completed (see fig. 7, c).[34]
The time consumed by the swiftest potter of the village, in moulding an
unusually large prayer-meal bowl, is recorded in Table V. The piece was
seven and a half inches long, four and three-quarters inches wide, and
three and a half inches high. The terraces raised the ends one and
three-quarters inches more.
TABLE V
_Min._ _Sec._
00.00 -- First handful of paste for the bowl picked up
08.00 -- Two rolls put on the pat and flattened, the rim smoothed and
interior scraping begun (exterior scraping done later)
22.00 -- Moulding of the bowl itself completed, after some time spent
in pressing down the pat on the interior of the bowl. Vessel set aside
22.00 -- _Time out_
22.00 -- Interior and exterior smoothing begun
26.00 -- Paste picked up for roll to be placed on one end of bowl
29.45 -- Roll flattened and smoothing of edges begun
30.30 -- Interior scraping begun
31.10 -- Exterior scraping begun
31.45 -- Smoothing of connection with sides begun
32.30 -- Roll placed on other end
33.45 -- Roll flattened and interior scraping begun
34.15 -- Exterior scraping begun
34.45 -- Very small roll placed on first end to improve curve, followed
by a little smoothing with kajepe
35.45 -- Finishing of end begun
37.30 -- Marking of one end with fingernail begun
38.15 -- Notches cut with thread, pieces removed, and finishing of
terrace begun
40.15 -- Marking of other end with fingernail begun
40.35 -- Cutting of notches with thread begun
41.05 -- Pieces removed and finishing of terrace begun
43.15 -- Finishing completed
DOUBLE-MOUTHED VASES
The first step in the construction of this type of vessel is the
moulding of an open-mouthed bowl. Across the mouth of this bowl a clay
bridge is placed. Finishing touches are given at this stage of the work,
just as if the moulding had been entirely completed. The piece is set
aside for a while to stiffen.
Later, additional rolls are added to each half of the mouth of the bowl
by attaching them to the rim proper and also to the bridge. In this way
two necks are gradually built up. At regular intervals the work is set
aside to stiffen in order that it may support the additional weight to
be added. The shape and height of the two necks depend entirely upon the
whim of the potter. The moulding of the upper parts of the two necks is
a delicate process, and requires considerable skill. The roll-marks on
the interior of the neck, if obliterated at all, are destroyed by the
fingers only, since the diameter of the neck is too small to permit the
use of a kajepe. After the moulding has been entirely finished, a handle
connecting the two necks is usually put across the top at right angles
to the bridge which forms the base of the necks. Obviously this handle
has a structural as well as ornamental purpose.[35]
HANDLES
In all cases in which handles are to be applied the vessel is entirely
finished before they are put on. The potters of San Ildefonso make three
types of handles: (1) passing across the top of an open-mouthed bowl,
(2) attached vertically to the side of a vessel, (3) attached
horizontally to the side of a vessel. All three types consist of a short
roll of paste of the proper length, usually somewhat smaller in diameter
than the rolls used in the body of the vessel. This roll is slightly
flattened before it is applied.
The first two types of handles are placed on the vessel in the same
manner. The ends of the flattened roll are pinched still flatter. In the
case of the handle over the top of a bowl, first one end of the roll,
then the other, is attached by pressure to the exterior of the rim. The
vertical handle on the side of a vessel is attached first to the
exterior of the rim, then bent over and attached to the side just above
the shoulder. The left hand is used as a stop on the inside of the
vessel in order that the shape of the side may not be altered by the
pressure exerted in applying the handle. The junction-lines between the
handle and the vessel are then obliterated with the forefinger of the
right hand. Small pellets of paste may be added to the side of the
contacts, especially on the inner side of the handle where it makes an
acute angle with the side of the bowl. In this way the welding is made
solid, and the curves regular. Finally the curve of the handle itself is
made symmetrical. A few finishing touches, such as the obliterating of
fine cracks in the handle and the smoothing of its surface, complete the
process. Such a handle may be constructed in three to five minutes.
Horizontal handles are attached to the sides of vessels in an entirely
different manner, being keyed or riveted in, rather than merely welded
on. Handles of this type are usually put on in pairs. The position of
one handle is chosen and the rim of the finished pot is marked to show
its location; by sighting across the top of the vessel a point exactly
opposite is also marked to give the location of the other. For each
handle two holes, about three-eighths of an inch in diameter and fairly
close together, are cut through the side of the vessel from the exterior
with a small stick. One end of the roll which is to form the handle is
inserted in one of the two holes. Then the other end is similarly
inserted. The left hand holds the first end in place on the interior,
while the other end is being put in (pl. 17, b). Next the junctions
between the ends of the roll and the interior surface of the vessel are
smoothed over and obliterated with the fingers of the right hand. The
handle itself is flattened a little, and small pellets of paste are
added at the junctions between it and the exterior of the vessel. These
are smoothed over with the fingers, so that superficially the handle
looks as if it had been pressed upon the surface in the same manner as a
vertical handle. A smoothing of curves, and touching up of the handles
to make them symmetrical, form the last stage of the construction. It
took one potter just an hour to place a pair of handles of this type on
a globular bowl.[36]
SUN-DRYING
The purpose of sun-drying is to allow the vessels to harden, and to
remove all moisture before the work on them is completed. During
sun-drying, which immediately follows moulding, the ability of the
vessels to withstand some heat is also tested. Pieces made of improperly
mixed clay are eliminated at this stage of the work, because of the
cracks which develop (see under Temper, p. 21). The length of time
allowed for sun-drying depends upon the weather and also upon the place
where the vessels are exposed.
During the dry months of the year, notably in May and June, vessels
placed in the sun will dry completely in less than a day, often in half
a day (pl. 18, a). In the fall it requires an entire day under the same
conditions. When the sky is cloudy or showers threaten, the drying is
done in the house. If time is not pressing, the pots are placed on a
table, or in the corner of the room, and allowed to remain there three
or more days. At the end of that time they are usually sufficiently dry.
Vessels moulded one afternoon and placed on the table for the night are
dry enough the following morning to permit lifting them from the pukis,
which can then be used again. If, during cloudy weather, the potter
desires to dry the vessels quickly, they are placed in the oven of the
small wood-stove with which most San Ildefonso houses are nowadays
equipped. Sometimes a piece of corrugated cardboard from a carton is
placed on the floor of the oven, the door of which is left open to allow
the evaporating moisture to escape. Only a low fire is built in the
stove, for a hot one would cause the vessels to dry too quickly. Under
such treatment a batch of pottery can be dried in two days, more or
less. The length of time depends very largely upon the number of pieces
to be dried, for the potter tries to keep all the vessels at about the
same stage of drying; this of course requires frequent relays in the
oven. The most common, and most natural, method, however, is to place
the vessels in the sun and, when showers threaten, to carry them
hurriedly into the house. In this way pottery is dried in a day or a day
and a half. The loss of moisture in the paste changes its color from a
dark reddish or greyish brown to a light reddish or whitish grey, and in
the early stages the variations in the color of the paste serve as
indications of the dryness of the vessel. Later the color-change is very
difficult to detect. Various parts of the vessel dry at different rates;
the rim always first, then the body, and last the base, both because it
is thicker and because it is usually in the shadow of the vessel itself;
in spite of this the vessels are never inverted while they are drying.
The occurrence of cracks in the paste is the only form of accident which
takes place during drying. There are three sorts of cracks: those in the
bottom of the vessel, which usually pass through or very near the centre
of the base; rim-cracks; and vertical cracks in the body. All are caused
by the contraction of the paste in drying. The part of the vessel which
receives the greatest strain is the base, which,
[Illustration: PLATE 18
a. Vessels on their base-moulds drying in the sun; the pottery is always
thoroughly sun-dried after it is moulded and before it is decorated.
b. Summer house of Antonita Roybal, a woman who specializes in the
manufacture of large red ollas: a row of these may be seen drying before
the house.]
because of the amount of paste in it, has a tendency to contract more
than the bottom of the side. The next greatest strain is at the bottom
of the side, where the paste must adjust itself to the contraction in
the base as well as to that in the body of the vessel. The body and lip
have the least strain, for the contraction may be compensated for by a
slight settling of the paste. It is in the base, therefore, that cracks
usually occur, and then near the centre of it, since that is the point
of greatest strain. The size and quantity of the cracks are an
indication of the amount of temper still needed to make the paste of
just the right consistency. If there are many small cracks, or a single
serious one, the piece may be discarded entirely, to be broken up later,
and re-used in moulding. If a crack is not serious, it is filled as
follows. With a small sliver of wood, or the end of a case-knife, the
paste on the edge of the crack is forced down into it, first on the
interior and then on the exterior; little pellets of paste are then
added and pressed into the crack until it is filled. Final smoothing
with the finger or the kajepe completes the obliteration.
Small vertical cracks near the base of the body probably also indicate
faulty mixture of the paste. The potters, however, say that these fine
cracks are caused by a vessel’s drying too quickly in the sun, and
insist that if it had been allowed to dry slowly in the house, they
would not have appeared. Such cracks are too fine and too numerous to
warrant the careful filling of each one; so accordingly the surface is
merely dampened, some soft paste is added and rubbed in with the fingers
or the kajepe.
Cracks running downward from the rim are exceedingly rare. The women of
San Ildefonso make no attempt to repair them, but occasionally cut down
the vessel to a smaller size. In the single instance noted[37] the crack
was first traced downward from the rim until its end was located upon
the neck, then the upper part of the neck was cut off below the end of
the crack. It was thus possible to use the base of the olla as a large
bowl. A line parallel with the rim was marked about the circumference of
the neck with a lead-pencil. This line was incised with a penknife, and
gone over again in order to deepen it. A second line was incised around
the neck about three-sixteenths of an inch nearer the rim. Then the
paste between these two lines was dug out with great care, forming a
V-shaped groove (pl. 20, a). This groove was cut through about one-half
the thickness of the wall all the way around the neck. Then at one point
the wall was pierced, and, from there around, the groove was deepened by
long and short strokes of a knife pulled toward the body until the wall
had been cut through for about three-fifths of the circumference. The
remainder broke away easily. The raw surface of the new rim was then
softened by the application of water and smoothed with the fingers. The
potter said this was the usual method of treating a rim crack.
SCRAPING
The purpose of this process is twofold, to improve the surface of the
vessel by removing the marks left by the kajepe and the puki, and to
thin the sides, thus reducing the weight of the finished piece. It is
usually begun the day following the completion of the moulding and
sun-drying, unless other duties, such as planting, harvesting, and the
like, force a postponement. Large vessels such as ollas are allowed to
dry nearly forty-eight hours before they are scraped. At San Ildefonso
vessels are made in quantities ranging from a dozen to fifty pieces. The
moulding and drying of the entire group, a process which may extend over
a period of several days, is entirely finished before the scraping is
begun.
There are three steps in the scraping: the wetting, the actual scraping,
and the smoothing of the surface. The implements employed are a wet
cloth and a scraper. The latter is either the top of a baking-powder
can, or a kitchen case-knife. The can-top seems to be the more popular
because it may be used on nearly any type of curve on the vessel. The
informants said that their people formerly used potsherds, stones, or
broken animal-bones as scrapers, in fact anything that had a suitable
edge; the potsherds were sharpened and straightened by rubbing them on
coarse sandstone.
When the vessel is brought in from drying, it is easily lifted from the
puki, since the layer of ashes or temper prevents sticking. A small olla
or bowl is held upon the left knee, with the mouth tilted to the left
and away from the body. A bowl is held with the left hand, the fingers
on the interior, the thumb on the exterior of the lip. The exterior
surface of the vessel is then softened by wiping it with a wet rag. This
step is omitted by some potters always, by others only when the vessel
needs a small amount of scraping. The scraping itself is begun while the
surface is still damp. The scraper first touches the vessel near the
shoulder. The work then continues toward the base by means of short,
quick strokes taken toward the body. As the work advances the upper part
of the bowl is turned away from the body, that is, the vessel turns
counterclockwise. When the ridges marking the former position of the
edge of the puki are being destroyed, care is taken to keep the curve of
the side uniform from the base to the shoulder. If the scraping
discloses an impurity, such as a stone fragment in the paste, it is
removed; the resulting irregularity is filled with a pinch of soft
paste, and smoothed over. The strokes of the scraper are usually
approximately parallel to the rim of the vessel. The upper part is
scraped as far as the surface remains convex. In bowls the scraping is
done to the very rim. In both large and small ollas with flaring lip,
the scraping continues only to the base of the flare. The interiors of
vessels, even of wide-mouthed bowls, are never scraped. When a bowl
requires little scraping to make the surface uniform, it may be finished
in from three to five minutes. Those which are too
[Illustration: PLATE 19
a. Scraping an olla after sun-drying; the implement used is an ordinary
kitchen case-knife.
b. Scraping; the dark part of the olla has just been moistened to
soften the clay.]
heavy, and therefore need thinning, take considerably longer. It may
even be necessary to moisten the surface a second time. The potters
judge the proper thickness of the bowls by weighing them in the two
hands with the elbows unsupported.
Large ollas, while being scraped, are held in the lap, with the mouth
inclined to the left and away from the body. The left hand supporting
the olla is placed palm down upon the neck (pl. 19, b). Because of the
extent of surface to be gone over only that part of the olla about to be
scraped is moistened with the cloth. When a case-knife is used instead
of a can-top, it is held either at right angles to the surface worked or
at an angle of about sixty degrees with the surface, the upper edge of
the knife tilted away from the body (pl. 19, a). In all vessels, bowls
as well as ollas, the angle with the horizontal made by the mouth varies
considerably, according to the part of the vessel being scraped. After
the scraping proper is completed, one potter sometimes rubs the surface,
including the rim and lip, with a little steel wool, which noticeably
improves the smoothness. The final step is to go over the entire surface
carefully with the palm of the right hand in search of irregularities or
small uneven spots.
When the scraper is laid aside for the last time, the surface of the
vessel is again softened with a wet cloth. By means of vigorous rubbing
the thin film of moist surface-paste is redistributed over the entire
exterior of the vessel, filling the small scratches made by the scraper,
and softening the edges of the larger ones. If the vessel is a bowl or a
large olla, its position is then changed so that its mouth is tilted to
the right and towards the body, whereupon the interior is treated with a
wet cloth. The finishing touches consist in smoothing, either with a wet
cloth or the ball of the finger, small areas of the surface which are
not quite to the potter’s satisfaction. The use of the wet cloth gives a
uniform smooth texture which is a distinct improvement over the scraped
surface. The paste resumes its dry color in three to five minutes after
the wetting. This process actually amounts to the same thing as putting
a thin slip of paste upon the vessel, but the potters do not think of it
in that light. It is said that some women entirely omit this final
smoothing step. Formerly a wet cloth was not used; the fingers alone, a
piece of sandstone, or a corncob served, according to the informants, to
smooth the surface after scraping. As a matter of fact, however, cloth
was used in old times for smoothing pottery, as clay-smeared rags are
occasionally discovered in the rubbish of ancient cliff houses. Ground
potsherds, on the other hand, were more often used than gourd-rind
kajepes, the latter being very rare even in the dry deposits found in
caves. At Pecos well-worn fragments of the spongy interior parts of
large animal bones have been found which may well have been employed for
smoothing.
The time element in scraping is a variable quantity. Table VI on the
following page is the record of one potter. A, B, and C were large
ollas; D, E, and F were small globular ollas six inches in diameter and
five inches high; G was a shallow, wide-mouthed bowl.
TABLE VI
A B C D E F G
_Min._ _Sec._
Wet cloth applied 00.00 00.00 00.00 00.00 00.00 00.00 00.00
Scraping begun 00.30 01.00 00.30
Wet cloth applied again 02.30 08.30
Wet cloth applied again 04.00 11.00
Steel wool rub begun 05.30 16.30
Scraping done, exterior
smoothing begun 08.00 18.30 18.00 08.30 03.00 05.00 08.00
Interior smoothing begun 14.30 26.00 11.00 05.30 07.30 11.00
Finishing begun 17.00
Set aside 17.30 31.30 35.00 13.00 08.30 08.30 15.30
The treatment of the vessels after scraping varies considerably among
different potters. One places the scraped vessels in the sun for a
period of not less than three days in order to test them for cracks;
another begins the next step in the work, that of slipping, almost at
once, sometimes the same day; a third after scraping ollas replaces them
in the sun for a day or so, in order to allow them to “get warm” (that
is, dry thoroughly),[38] before the slipping and polishing are begun.
SLIPPING AND POLISHING
Up to this point all vessels are made in the same general manner. In the
succeeding stages the treatment differs according to the type of
decoration which is eventually to be applied. The making of the vessel
has been completed, and the finishing is now begun. Just as the making
is divided into three general processes--moulding, sun-drying, and
scraping, so the finishing is similarly divided into slipping, painting,
and firing.
Slipping is the application of a very thin layer of clay to the surface
or surfaces of the vessel to produce a smooth texture, uniform in color,
which gives the pottery a pleasing appearance; it also serves as a
background upon which designs may be painted. The slip further acts as a
sizing. San Ildefonso slip is a saturated solution of a colored clay in
water; it is very little thicker than water, and is applied by means of
a small piece of cloth, used in much the same way in which a painter
would handle a brush an inch and a half or two inches wide. It is said
that formerly a small piece of skin was used instead of a cloth mop. The
treatment after application depends upon the slip used; some slips are
merely wiped vigorously with a cloth, others must be polished with
smooth, fine-grained stones.
At San Ildefonso the potters use slips of four different colors--white
(of two varieties), orange-red, red, and dark-red. The red and dark-red
slips and one variety of the white must be polished; the other white and
the orange-red do not need it. The white slips are principally used as
backgrounds in polychrome ware (see pl. 6), the red for undecorated red
ware and polished black ware (see pl. 8), and the dark-red for decorated
red ware (see pl. 7, a, b). The orange-red slip is the only one of the
four which is not used on the body of vessels, it being confined to the
bases of ollas and of some bowls. The white and the orange-red are used
also in the elements of designs.[39]
WHITE SLIP
The native white slip (see p. 23) is applied and polished in the same
manner as the red slip (see p. 23). It has been very largely supplanted
by the Santo Domingo white slip, which does not require polishing.
The Santo Domingo white slip (see p. 23) is a soapy clay which the San
Ildefonso potters obtain from the Indians of Santo Domingo and Cochiti.
It is mixed with water in enamelled pans and basins or in china dishes,
although formerly pottery vessels were used to hold it. Although
undissolved lumps of the clay remain in the bottom of the vessel
containing the solution, the latter is not appreciably thicker than
water. The mop with which it is applied is a folded cloth, about two
inches wide and three, or three and a half, inches long. This is held at
one end, between the thumb and the first two fingers of the right hand,
the other end of the cloth acting as a two-inch wide paint-brush, which
is manipulated with an easy, backward-forward stroking motion, parallel
to the rim.[40]
Before the slip is applied, the hand is rubbed over the surface in order
to remove any dust or powder which may remain after the scraping. Some
vessels, while being slipped, are held with the mouth vertical and to
the left, supported by the bent fingers of the left hand against the
interior of the rim. Others are held upright, resting upon the palm of
the left hand (pl. 20, b). In both cases the vessels are revolved
counterclockwise as the slip is applied. In the container the slip is
creamy white, but when first laid on it turns a muddy yellowish-white,
because the clay below darkens as it absorbs the moisture. Within two or
three minutes the under clay dries, and the surface becomes dead white.
Five or six coats are applied, the vessel being allowed to become
completely dry after each one. One potter rubbed the surface vigorously
with a dry cloth after each application and before the slip had
thoroughly dried. Another rubbed the vessel with a cloth only after all
the coats had been put on, but before the last had dried. Usually the
work is done in the sun, at the place where the pieces have been drying,
but occasionally it is carried on in the house, and between coatings the
vessels are placed in an oven heated by a slow fire. The length of time,
five or more minutes, during which the vessel remains in the oven is
determined by testing the warmth of its surface. When the work has been
completed, the very faint marks of the mop are visible.
Pieces of pottery of various shapes are slipped on different surfaces.
Small ollas and constricted-mouthed bowls are coated with white only on
the upper two-thirds or three-quarters of the exterior. No particular
care is taken to keep the lower edge of the slip regular. Of smaller
vessels the entire exterior, including the base, is usually covered.
Open-mouthed bowls are coated with white both in the interior and the
upper part of the exterior. Shallow open-mouthed bowls may be coated
only on the interior. The exterior surfaces not treated with white slip
are later coated with orange-red slip (see below).
The actual length of time that each vessel is in the hands of the potter
while it is being slipped is very short. It requires one-quarter to
one-half a minute to apply a coat of slip to a constricted-mouthed bowl
six to eight inches in diameter. The six coats could be applied in less
than three minutes. Another half minute is needed for the rubbing with
the cloth at the end. Four minutes in all is a generous estimate. A coat
of slip is applied to the entire group of vessels at one time (pl. 20,
b). Less than fifteen minutes are required to give a single coat of slip
to a group of from twenty to thirty pieces. After this step has been
completed, the vessels are placed in the sun for an hour or more before
the painting of the design is begun, the length of time depending upon
attendant circumstances.
[Illustration: PLATE 20
a
Cutting the top from an olla which had cracked slightly at the rim
during the final sun-drying. The raw edge was afterwards worked down to
form a new rim, and the vessel was successfully fired.
b
Applying white slip with a cloth mop. The enamelled pan containing the
prepared slip is on the bench at the potter’s side. A number of vessels
are slipped at one time.]
ORANGE-RED SLIP
This slip is applied only to the bases of vessels (ollas and certain
bowls) and to the interior of the lips of ollas. Before burning it is
mustard-yellow in color, but after firing it becomes orange-red. A cloth
mop is used for application in the same manner as with the white slip;
one coat only is applied to each surface.
As a rule the vessel being slipped is held in the lap, the mouth
vertical and turned to the left (pl. 21, a). The left hand is placed in
the interior to support it and keep it turning counterclockwise, that
is, the upper part is turned away from the body, as the strokes are
taken towards the body. The formation of the junction-line between this
base-slip and the body-slip is very carefully handled. No attention is
paid to the lower edge of the body-slip, except to notice its general
location, for the base-slip covers it and itself produces the edge. This
upper line, made by long, careful, slow, trailing strokes of the mop, is
drawn entirely free-hand, yet the potters succeed surprisingly well in
keeping it always the same distance from the centre of the base. Three
or four strokes are more than sufficient to encircle the vessel (pl. 21,
a). It is often possible in the finished piece to trace the lower edge
of the body-slip, under the orange-red coating. After the junction line
has been drawn, the rest of the base is covered with shorter
forward-backward strokes. The application of the orange-red slip to the
interior of the lips of ollas is done with the same careful, slow
technique used in forming the junction-line near the base of the body;
during the process the vessel is held on the palm of the hand right-side
up. The exterior of shallow bowls which receive no white slip is
completely coated with the orange-red, the bowl being inverted over the
left hand during the application.
The orange-red slip may be put on either before or after the painting of
the design; if before, the painting may be begun at once; if after, the
application may be delayed until within an hour or two of burning. If
the vessels are set aside for a while at this stage, they are covered
with a cloth to keep the dust and flies away. The time element is
practically the same as in the case of the white slip.
RED SLIP
The red slip, as was said above, serves to cover the surfaces of
undecorated red-ware. It is always polished with the rubbing-stone after
application. When given a certain special firing (see p. 74) it turns a
lustrous black and so produces polished black ware (pl. 8, b). This slip
is a saturated solution in water of the red clay just as it was obtained
from the claypits (see p. 24). Although undissolved lumps remain at the
bottom of the solution, the latter is no thicker than water. The
containers are either open-mouthed pottery bowls or china dishes. The
slip is applied as usual with a small folded rag. While it is being put
on, the vessel may be hung from the fingers of the left hand with the
mouth vertical, or held in the usual way upon the palm of the left hand,
its position depending upon whether or not the base is to be slipped.
The surface is covered two or three times with the cloth mop, in a
rather haphazard manner, so that certain portions where the strokes
overlap receive as many as four coats. The potter herself is uncertain
regarding the number of coats the surface has received, as they are
applied one immediately after the other, with no wait between. The
mopping is stopped when the surface seems uniformly covered with just
the right shade--a rather bright red. San Ildefonso potters usually
cover with this slip the entire exterior of small ollas and bowls,
including the base.[41] In some cases shallow open-mouthed bowls are
slipped only on the interior.
Before the slip dries, the rubbing with the polishing-stone is begun.
The stone is held between the thumb and first two fingers of the right
hand. The entire surface is gone over several times with a
backward-forward motion in strokes about three or four inches long.[42]
Each stroke is made with the entire forearm, there being no noticeable
play in either the wrist or the fingers. This is a rather fatiguing and
exacting process, for to obtain the best results all parts of the
surface must receive equal attention: a definite system, however, has
been developed by means of which the entire surface is gone over.
In polishing the exterior of a small olla or of a bowl, the vessel is
first placed upon the lap in an inverted position, tilted slightly to
the right. It is held at the rim by the left hand, which rests upon the
left thigh. The polishing is begun on the right-hand side of the base
near the body, and proceeds diagonally across the base to the far
left-hand side. The vessel is then tipped up with the mouth to the left
and the rim nearly vertical. The polishing is begun at the shoulder and
continued down to within a very short distance of the centre of the base
(pl. 21, b). At this stage some potters polish from the base to the
shoulder. As the work continues, the upper part of the bowl is turned
counterclockwise away from the body. Usually the stroke is parallel to
the rim, but occasionally a diagonal motion develops. The strokes across
the bottom are then made at right angles to the previous series. A
constricted-mouthed bowl is then turned so that the mouth, still
vertical, is to the right, and the section from the lip to the shoulder
is polished; the bowl is now turned clockwise, that is, the top still
turns away from the body. Small ollas may be held either in this
position or with the mouth tilted at an angle of about forty-five
degrees to the left and away from the body, in which case the polishing
is done from the shoulder to the lip (see pl. 30, b, which shows a Zuñi
potter using the polishing stone).
After the surface has been completely covered in this manner once, and
none too carefully, the rim is coated with the slip, applied by the
forefinger of the right hand, and gone over with the stone. The vessel
is then wiped with a cloth upon
[Illustration: PLATE 21
a. Applying orange-red slip with a cloth mop; the beginning of the
stroke may be seen just above the lap of the potter. b. Polishing a bowl
with a small stone after red slip has been applied. The marks of the
stone are visible at first, but quickly disappear as the slip dries. c.
Women working with the polishing stone. Note the light line about the
shoulder of the large olla, where a space is always temporarily left
unpolished.]
which a little lard has been rubbed. The lard may be kept near the
potter in any convenient receptacle, like a sauce-dish or the bowl of a
spoon. A clean cloth is then immediately used to distribute the lard
evenly upon the surface, and to remove any surplus. Some potters do not
use this second cloth at all; others apply the lard to the vessels with
their fingers, wiping it immediately afterwards with a cloth. In some
cases, the application of the lard is withheld until the polishing is
entirely completed.
The polishing is then continued in exactly the manner just described.
The surface is covered more carefully and more slowly, the areas worked
upon often overlapping considerably. A cloth, sometimes a part of the
potter’s apron, is now between the left hand and the vessel in order to
protect the smooth surface. A considerable pressure is exerted. Some
women use a short, very quick stroke; others a somewhat longer, slower
stroke, hence taking more time for the work. In this way the surface is
covered several times. Finally the routine treatment is dropped, and
finishing touches are given by polishing small areas here and there
which do not show the required amount of lustre. The strokes used at the
end are usually slightly longer than the previous ones. Finally, after
the stone has been laid aside, the surface is wiped once with a clean
cloth before the vessel is set aside; it is usually placed upon a mat or
cloth in order that the base may not be scratched by contact with the
earthen floor. When the polishing of several vessels has been completed,
they are gathered in a corner of a room on a mat or rug, and covered
with a cloth to keep the flies and dust away, for it is said that
fly-specks leave a black mark upon the burned vessel.
In the case of large ollas one half of the vessel is doubtless coated
with slip and polished before the other half is slipped. This is the
process employed in polishing large ollas slipped with dark-red (see p.
63). No opportunity presented itself to see a large polished olla being
made.
In polishing the interior of a shallow bowl, the vessel is held in its
normal position, tilted slightly to the right, and resting upon the
right knee and the palm of the left hand, which in turn, rests upon the
left knee. The polishing is done from the lip to the centre of the
vessel. As the work advances, the bowl is turned counterclockwise.
The degree of polish obtained by different potters varies considerably,
and yet in even the very finest examples of polishing the marks left by
the stone may be faintly seen in certain lights in the form of
exceedingly low ridges, generally running roughly parallel to the rim
and too low to be felt with the fingers. The surface has a lustre almost
equal to that of burnished metal. In pieces which are not as well
polished, the ridges are higher and may be felt with the fingers; indeed
they are often prominent enough to make the lustre uneven. Maria
Martinez, who does the best polishing, is also the swiftest worker in
the village. From the moment the vessel is picked up to apply the slip
until the completion of the polishing, it is not laid down for an
instant. Her strokes are quicker than those of the other potters; she
covers the surface in much less time and therefore polishes a given area
more often before the slip dries. Continued polishing tires the wrist
and hand very quickly and is apt to produce cramps. Other potters are
inclined to rest for a few minutes from time to time, especially after
the application of the slip and again after the lard has been put on.
One woman complained of the humid weather, because it did not allow the
slip to dry quickly enough. The potters themselves say that streaky
polish is due to lack of persistence on the part of the polisher. Maria
attributes her success to the fact that she uses a faster stroke and
puts on a little more lard than the others. Large vessels usually have a
poorer polish than small ones. The secret of good polishing seems to lie
in the ability of the potter to go over her work as many times as
possible after the slip has been applied and before it becomes too dry.
The time during which the vessel being polished is actually in the hands
of the potter is given in Table VII. The first column (A) represents a
constricted-mouthed bowl, about eight inches in diameter at the shoulder
and four inches high, which was polished by Maria. In one hour and
fifteen minutes elapsed time three such bowls were done, an average of
twenty-five minutes for each. The second column (B) represents the
polishing by another potter of the interior of a shallow wide-mouthed
bowl. The actual time from the moment the bowl was picked up for the
application of the slip until the polishing was done was forty-one
minutes. A rest of one minute was taken after the slip had been applied,
another of thirteen minutes after the application of the lard, in order
to let the bowl “dry”, and a third of one minute when the final
polishing was about half done. The interior of this bowl was a very fine
example of polishing.
TABLE VII
_Min._ _Sec._ _Min._ _Sec._
First application of the slip 00.00 00.00
First polishing begun 02.50 03.00
Slipping of rim begun 04.45
Polishing of rim begun 05.30
Application of lard begun 06.05 10.00
Wiping with dry cloth begun 06.40
Final polishing begun 07.05 11.00
Polishing finished 24.05 26.00
DARK-RED SLIP
The dark-red slip is a mixture of red slip, native white slip, and
tempering material. It is applied to vessels which are later to receive
a black design (see pl. 7, a, b). It is mopped on with a cloth in
exactly the same manner as the red, and is also polished with a stone
but never acquires as high a lustre as does the red. There seems to be a
tendency for the first coat of this slip to dry more readily than the
first coat of the red slip.
While applying the slip to small ollas about six inches in diameter, the
vessel is held by the rim with the left hand. Either the entire exterior
may be slipped, or the base may remain uncoated, to be covered later
with the orange-red slip. The slip is first applied to the rim, the
forefinger being used instead of a mop. During this process the vessel
is right-side up either in the lap or on the floor. The body is then
slipped with the cloth mop, and the polishing done in two parts, with
the shoulder as the dividing line. In polishing the lower part the
strokes begin at the base, or at the lower edge of the slip in case the
base has not been coated, and proceed upward to the shoulder. The
direction of the strokes is practically parallel to the rim. The upper
part is polished from the shoulder to the lip. On the base, if it has
been slipped, the strokes are first made in one direction, then at right
angles to that direction. From time to time, as the polishing proceeds,
the vessels are set aside in order to allow the slip to dry somewhat.
They may even be placed in the sun or near a fire on the hearth. The
potters explain that if the work is completed while the slipped surface
is very damp, the resulting polish will not be as high as when the slip
is just drying. Apparently, the work done just before the surface
becomes dry plays an important part in securing a high lustre. One of
the potters working on this ware applied a little lard to the surface
after the polishing had been completed. Another potter used no lard
whatever for this class of ware.[43] When the polishing has been
completed the vessel is placed in the sun or near a fire to dry
thoroughly before it is put away to await decoration. While the olla is
drying it is covered with a cloth to protect it from flies.
In polishing larger ollas one half of the vessel is coated with the
dark-red slip and polished before the other half is slipped. Either the
half above the shoulder or the half below the shoulder may be polished
first. Rather quick strokes, three or four inches long, are made with
the stone. Sufficient pressure is exerted to cause motion in the entire
body of the worker. The strokes, as before, are usually parallel to the
rim. Because of the larger surface to be covered in these vessels, the
position of the olla on the lap of the potter is changed frequently. It
is supported with the left hand, which is placed palm down upon the
exterior surface. While the lip is being polished, the mouth is turned
toward the body and to the right, making an angle of about sixty degrees
from the horizontal. In polishing the upper part of the shoulder the
potter turns the mouth to the left and away from the body (pl. 21, c).
Usually the mouth is more nearly horizontal in this position than in the
former.
Before applying the slip to the lower half of the olla, a faint line is
drawn with the polishing-stone around the lower part of the body to
define the lower edge of the body-slip. During the slipping and
polishing of this portion of the surface, the olla is held with the
mouth nearly vertical and to the left, directed away from the body. When
the polishing proper is completed, the finishing touches are given to
the entire exterior by rubbing small areas here and there which do not
entirely satisfy the potter.
As in the case of the red slip, the polishing must be completed before
the slip becomes too dry. When there is a large surface to be polished,
as in the case of these ollas, it is of course necessary that the work
upon any given section of the surface be completed as quickly as
possible. Therefore when two potters are working together, the swifter
of the two does the polishing on the larger vessel, regardless of which
of the two applies the slip. After the polishing proper has been
completed, the olla may be turned over to the slower worker for the
finishing touches. This necessity for speed in polishing is probably the
reason for slipping only a part of the surface at one time.
Now and then, as the polishing proceeds, the potter changes stones. An
important factor in this change is the desire to rest the fingers
through the slight alteration in grip afforded by the different shapes
of the stones. Occasionally the change is due to a wish to obtain a
stone with just the proper shaped surface for the section of the olla
being worked upon. There is also a tendency to use a larger, rougher
stone at the beginning of the work, for which is substituted later for
the final finish a smaller, finer-grained, and therefore smoother,
stone.
Because of the practice of slipping and polishing only half the surface
at a time, there develops around the shoulder a narrow line of dried
slip, which is naturally lighter in color than the worked areas. (This
line may be seen encircling the olla in pl. 21, c). After the polishing
of the upper and lower areas has been completed, the potter’s attention
turns to this line, and since dry slip cannot be polished, the rubbing
stone is either wet with the tongue or dipped into the liquid in the
slip-container before being used on the line. The latter method appears
to give the best results, but in either case, the moistening of the
stone is done very frequently, and the process of eliminating the
lighter line is a painfully slow one. Even when the best results have
been obtained, the line is not entirely obliterated. Occasionally the
stone is moistened with the tongue while giving final touches to other
parts of the surface.
When the polishing with the stone has been entirely completed, a little
lard is rubbed on the surface either with the forefinger or with a
greasy cloth; the surface is then vigorously rubbed with a chamois.[44]
This distributes the lard evenly and very noticeably improves the
lustre. Then the vessel, after being covered with a cloth, is put in the
sun to dry thoroughly.
The great difference in the time required for polishing large and small
ollas requires two tables to present the details. Table VIII gives the
time during which a large olla, about fourteen inches in diameter at the
shoulder, was under the hands of the potters. The time devoted to
obliterating the light junction-line, about fifteen to twenty minutes,
was considerably longer than usual. Table IX gives the time required for
three small globular ollas, about six inches in diameter at the
shoulder. The surface of each of these was approximately the same as
that of the polished black constricted-mouthed bowl recorded in Table
VII.
TABLE VIII
_Hrs._ _Min._ _Sec._
00.00 -- Drawing of line about lower part of body begun
01.00 -- Slipping of lower half of olla begun
08.30 -- Slipping finished, polishing begun
23.30 -- Vessel transferred to a slower worker
40.00 -- Set aside
04.45 -- _Time out_
40.00 -- Polishing by slower worker continued
47.45 -- First application of lard begun
48.45 -- Polishing with chamois begun
50.45 -- Lower part finished
? -- _Time out_
50.45 -- Slipping of upper half begun
55.15 -- Slipping of body done, slipping of rim begun
56.45 -- Polishing begun
1.00.45 -- Vessel transferred to the swifter worker
1.20.45 -- Vessel transferred to the slower worker,
obliteration of junction-line
1.53.45 -- First application of lard begun
1.55.45 -- Polishing with chamois begun
1.59.45 -- Polishing of vessel completed
TABLE IX
_Min._ _Sec._
Slipping begun 00.00 00.00 00.00
Slipping completed 03.00
_Time out_ 01.00 omitted
Polishing begun 03.00 04.00 04.00
Set aside (second one beside fire) 27.30 31.30
_Time out_ 03.00 34.30 omitted
Polishing continued 27.30 omitted
Lard first applied, chamois used later 30.30 31.30 32.00
Work on vessel completed 31.45 33.00 36.00
PAINTING
Three varieties of paint are employed in making the designs--the black,
or guaco, which is used on red and polychrome wares, the orange-red
(also used as a slip), which serves as a paint in filling certain spaces
in the designs upon polychrome ware, and the black ware paint which
produces the designs upon polished black ware.[45]
The consistency of the guaco, when dissolved in water and ready for use,
varies from that of water to that of thick cream. The solution is sticky
and has a characteristic odor. A thin solution when applied to the
surface of a vessel is yellowish-green, and has much the same appearance
as a fresh coat of the orange-red paint. After drying the two are easily
distinguishable. A thick solution of guaco is dark brownish-green when
applied to the vessel, and on drying has a noticeable “body”, so that
the lines appear slightly raised and glossy. It is not possible to draw
as fine a line with the thick solution as with the thin one.
The orange-red is never used in painting lines, but only for filling
areas, and is therefore always applied with a medium or heavy brush.
In preparing the black ware paint, a slight amount of guaco is added as
an adhesive, and the solution is often stirred with the fingers in order
to insure complete dissolving of the coloring matter. When first applied
to the vessel, this paint is almost transparent; as it dries it becomes
yellowish.
The principal precaution taken when painting is begun is to guard
against flies. They eat the moist guaco, causing blank spaces in the
lines, and also make fly-specks on the slip which turn black in the
firing. The room is therefore cleared of flies as far as possible, and
great care then exercised to keep the door shut. The painter watches the
pot constantly, and often interrupts her work in order to brush a fly
from the design. If it is necessary to do the painting out of doors, the
services of an assistant are required to wave a cloth back and forth
across the top of the vessel to keep the flies away.[46] When the work
has been completed the vessels are immediately covered with a cloth.
The receptacle for paint may be either a small open-mouthed pottery bowl
or a china sauce-dish. During the painting it is on the right side of
the potter within easy reach, either on the floor or on a low stool. In
it is always a stirring-stick.
[Illustration: PLATE 22
Painting designs on small vessels. The decorator’s right hand does not
come in contact with the pot, and the tip of the brush is trailed rather
than stroked across the surface. a. Maria Martinez. b. Maximiliana
Martinez.]
The brushes are usually kept in the paint, or occasionally beside it,
and sometimes a pencil is also near at hand (pl. 23, a).
In decorating the exterior of a constricted-mouthed bowl, the vessel is
held upright and inclined very slightly towards the body; it rests on
the left knee and is steadied by the pressure of the left hand against
the interior of the rim (pl. 22, a). The potter sits in a position which
allows the light to come over her right shoulder directly upon the
section of the bowl being painted. As the work proceeds the vessel is
turned counterclockwise. When the design extends slightly below the
shoulder, the bowl is inclined to the left and away from the body. If a
considerable portion of the design is below the shoulder, the vessel is
inverted and is supported by the fingers of the left hand against the
interior base of the bowl.
If the interior of an open-mouthed bowl is being painted, the enclosing
lines near the rim are made first. During this process the bowl is held
with the mouth vertical and to the right, while the lines are drawn on
the lower part of the interior rim. The vessel moves counterclockwise.
The bottom of the interior is painted with the bowl standing in its
normal position on the left knee, the mouth inclined to the right and
toward the body.
When a large vessel, such as an olla, is to be painted, it is placed
upon a box or table of the proper height, which has previously been
covered with a rug or mat to protect the base (pl. 23). The painter
chooses her position so that the light will fall over her shoulder upon
the vessel. During the painting of the upper part of the vessel it is
touched with the left hand only when it needs to be turned. In working
below the shoulder the vessel is tilted slightly to the left, and away
from the painter.
The paint-brushes are made of slivers of yucca (fig. 5). They may be
roughly grouped into three weights--fine, medium, and heavy.[47] The
fine ones are used in making outlines on the smaller vessels; the medium
ones either for line work or for the filling of small areas; and the
heavy ones for filling only. During the painting there are from three to
six brushes in the paint vessel. These brushes are of such durability
that the potters have no definite idea of the length of their
usefulness. Since the fibres are brittle when dry, brushes are
occasionally broken by accident; to prevent such breakage they are
soaked in water for a few minutes to soften them before they are used.
The brush is held in the right hand, with the fingers in the position
used in holding a pencil or pen. The ends of the fingers are two or
three inches from the tip of the brush (pl. 22, a, b.; pl. 23, a). The
fingers of the right hand do not rest upon the surface of the vessel and
the entire right arm is unsupported (pl. 23), although at times the
elbow may be unconsciously steadied against the body. The straightness
and evenness of the lines drawn under these conditions are remarkable.
There is a slight personal variation in the method of contact of the
brush with the vessel. One potter uses only the tip of the brush;
another first places the tip upon the surface, and then makes the line
with the body of the brush; a third places the body of the brush upon
the vessel at the first contact. In making a line a trailing stroke is
invariably used; its direction is usually toward the body, but
occasionally away from it. The brush is always moved slowly, and the
angle at which it is held varies according to the part of the surface
over which the line is being drawn, and upon the part of the stroke
which is being made. At the beginning of a stroke the angle is an acute
one, varying from forty-five to seventy degrees (fig. 8, a); about the
middle it approximates ninety degrees (fig. 8, b); while at the end it
is often an obtuse angle of as much as one hundred and twenty degrees
(fig. 8, c). On small vessels the strokes seldom exceed four inches in
length; on larger pots they are sometimes as much as six inches long.
After each stroke the brush is dipped into the paint vessel; it is then
always drawn across the stirring stick, which is kept
[Illustration: FIG. 8. Angles at which paint-brush is held during a long
stroke; a. Beginning. b. Middle of stroke. c. End.]
there, in order to remove excess paint before being applied again to the
surface. Even after this precaution more paint occasionally remains on
the brush than is needed; in such a case the excess is removed by
touching with the tip of the brush various larger areas which will later
be covered with paint.
The width of the lines drawn is largely dependent upon personal
variation, although the type of design also governs their width to some
extent. Exceedingly fine lines, for example, would obviously look out of
proportion in a bold design upon a large olla. The lines vary in width
from one-thirtieth to one-tenth of an inch; the great majority are
between one-fifteenth and one-twentieth. Lines one-eighth or one-quarter
of an inch wide are in reality double, that is, they actually consist of
two lines painted so close together that they touch along their entire
length. Still wider lines are made by two parallel lines, with the space
between filled up. Some potters simply make the line once, retouching it
only in small sections which most plainly require such treatment. Others
go over each line at least twice in order to insure a constant width.
[Illustration: PLATE 23
Decorating large ollas. Note the unsupported arm of the painter and the
length of the brush. On the bench in front is the paint-cup with
stirring-stick and extra brushes (Antonita Roybal).]
From the point of view of technique, the lines upon the exteriors of
small vessels, such as constricted-mouthed bowls, may be divided into
two groups--the long enclosing lines and those within panels. In forming
the enclosing lines, especially the long horizontal ones, the vessel is
turned while the brush remains almost stationary. There are two methods
of forming such long horizontal lines, which of necessity are made of a
series of relatively short strokes. In one case the growth of the line
is in the same direction as the strokes, that is, each stroke begins at
the point at which the previous stroke ended. In this method the vessel
is turned counterclockwise. In the other case the growth of the line is
opposite to the direction of the stroke, that is, each stroke is begun a
short distance beyond the end of the line and is drawn to meet the
beginning of the previous stroke, the vessel being turned clockwise. In
either case the fingers of the left hand, which hold the pot by the
interior of the lip, are spread far apart in order to insure the
constant and regular motion of the vessel. When the lines within a panel
are being drawn, the procedure is just the reverse. The bowl remains
stationary while the brush is drawn across it. Occasionally lines which
are nearly horizontal are drawn first in one direction, then in the
other. In some cases, when long diagonal or curved lines are being made,
the vessel is turned very slightly counterclockwise.
Large vessels, such as ollas, remain stationary while the brush is being
drawn across the surface, and are turned only when a new area is to be
worked upon. Lines within panels are usually made with a single stroke
of the brush, for it is seldom that a diagonal or curved line within a
panel is more than four or five inches long. In large open designs the
long lines, both straight and curved, are often drawn in two parts.
Crosshatching is made by two sets of parallel lines crossing each other.
Dotting is done with the tip of the brush touched lightly to the
surface. Spaces are filled with a heavier brush by means of many short
strokes. As a rule the strokes begin at the upper right hand corner of
the area and proceed downward. In filling spaces, as in drawing lines,
some women go over their work only once, others apply two or three coats
in order to insure even distribution of the paint.
Some potters exhibit much sureness of touch and confidence in their own
ability; their designs are executed without hesitation, but at the same
time slowly. Others make hard work of the painting, seem uncertain, and
occasionally stop to rest and inspect the symmetry of the pattern.
There are two general points in the painting of vessels which should be
emphasized. The first is the remarkable steadiness of the painter’s
hand. It seems almost incredible that such straight, unwaving, even
lines can be drawn by a hand which is supported only by a completely
free arm, and guided merely by the end of the brush. The second is the
fact that the men often assist in the painting of designs. They may
either execute a complete design upon a vessel, or relieve the painter
from time to time during the construction of large patterns. This is the
only phase of the actual manufacture of pottery in which the men of the
village take part.[48]
FIRING
The firing of the vessels is not only the last major step in the making
of pottery, but it is also the most critical one. The supreme test of
the potter’s work is to subject it to the fire, for many forms of
accident occur during the process, some of them due to careless handling
of the vessels or of the firing materials, others to defective
workmanship or to hidden flaws in the paste. It is only natural that the
potters should exhibit considerable excitement and nervousness during
the firing. Some women proceed calmly and methodically, and take
occasional accidents as part of the day’s work; others are exceedingly
nervous, and show exasperation when things go wrong. The latter, as a
rule, have more accidents than the former. One potter, in six burnings,
lost two large ollas through breakage, and had innumerable smoke-clouds,
several of them rather severe ones.
The firing falls naturally into four distinct phases: the preparation,
the building of the oven, the burning, and the treatment after burning.
Each of these phases will be considered separately.
PREPARATION
The oven is usually situated behind the potter’s house. All that is
required is a level space free from vegetation; no attention is paid, as
a rule, to the position of the sun or to the direction of the prevailing
wind, and the same spot is used time after time. If on the evening
before the firing there are any signs of rain, or if a heavy dew is
expected, the area on which the oven is to be built in the morning is
covered with a thick layer of dead ashes to protect it from moisture. It
would be a fatal mistake to make the oven on ground which would give off
steam during the burning.
About six o’clock the next morning a fire is started on the area over
which the oven is to be built. While this preliminary fire is thoroughly
drying the ground, the accessories are collected (pl. 24, a). Slabs of
dung are brought out from the storage places; some of them are placed
against the house wall to dry in the sun, others remain in the washtubs
in which they have been carried. The material for the grate, and other
iron bars, are placed nearby. Pokers of wood and iron, shovels, and
sometimes pitchforks, which are to be used later in handling the burning
fuel and hot vessels, are placed within reach. When a collection of
small tin cans, pail-tops, and small stones saved for this purpose has
been added, the workers are ready to begin the burning. Usually a supply
of cedar kindling has been split, but sometimes this is done as the wood
is needed.
BUILDING THE OVEN
When the preliminary fire has died down to a mass of coals, these are
levelled to form an area of hot ashes about three feet in diameter. On
this the oven is built. The surface upon which the vessels are placed
must be raised a few inches
[Illustration: PLATE 24
a. Drying the oven site with a preliminary fire before burning the
pottery. At the lower right-hand corner are an old iron grate which will
later support the vessels, two iron rods to hold up the roof of the
oven, and a wooden poker. Cakes of dung for the oven walls are drying in
the sun against the house.
b. The vessels on the grate, and the oven wall of dung cakes begun.
Small tin cans support the cakes and keep them from touching the
vessels. The grate rests on stones, and split cedar kindling is placed
below it on the embers of the preliminary fire.]
above the ground to permit the introduction of fuel below the pottery.
Such a surface is usually formed of iron rods of one kind or another.
One potter built up a grate of a varied assortment of iron junk
supported on tin cans and odd-shaped iron fragments. Another potter used
a worn-out stove-grate supported on four half-bricks.
The vessels are then placed upon the grate in an inverted position. No
attempt is made to keep them from touching one another. In fact, they
are crowded together in order that the greatest possible number may be
burned at once (pl. 24, b). In firing red ware and polychrome ware only
one layer of vessels is placed upon the grate. When polished black ware
is to be burned, two layers may be made. The vessels in the second layer
are always placed carefully between those of the bottom layer, in order
that there may be free circulation of air on both the interior and
exterior of all the vessels (pl. 25, a). As a rule the larger bowls are
placed in the lower layer.
The number of polychrome vessels burned at one time varies from
half-a-dozen to twenty, according to the area of the grate and the size
of the vessels. At one burning there were eleven pieces, eight
medium-sized and three small; in another there were twenty, eight of
which were medium-sized, and the other twelve very small. It is possible
to burn as many as thirty-five polished black bowls at once. Some
potters burn both polychrome and red pottery in the same oven; others
insist that this should not be done, because red ware requires far less
time and heat than does polychrome.
After the pots have been placed on the grate, pieces of split cedar six
to fifteen inches long are inserted underneath it. Piñon is never used,
but the potters could not explain this, saying they had never tried it.
A wall-like ring of dung-cakes, placed on edge but not set as snugly
together as they might be, is then built around the grate (pl. 25, b).
Small tin cans, held in place by the weight of the dung, are used to
prevent the cakes from touching the vessels (pi. 24, b, shows one of
these cans very clearly). Sometimes small stones and broken bricks are
used in place of cans. While the ring is being completed more kindling
may be added. The Zuñi oven differs from that of San Ildefonso in being
built of smaller pieces of manure which are laid up horizontally instead
of on edge (see pl. 31, b, c).
The fire may now be lighted before the oven is finished, but sometimes
the potters wait until the roof is nearly complete. Cedar-bark shreds
are generally used to start the fire. The lighting is done through the
spaces between the dung-cakes, usually at more than one place, sometimes
in as many as five. No attention is paid to the wind in this process. If
the fire does not start quickly enough, cloths are used to fan the
flames.
The roof or vault of the oven is then built. Some potters place iron
bars across the top of the dung-ring, keeping them from touching the
vessels by inserting tin cans and stones. On these bars flat cakes of
dung are laid, and the larger holes are covered with smaller pieces of
dung. Other potters dispense with the bars and rest a large circular
cake of dung upon cans and stones set in the centre of the pile of
pottery. The space between this central cake and the top of the
dung-ring is bridged by other cakes which rest on the dung alone. In
this manner a low vault of dung-slabs is formed, roughly square in
shape, two and a half to three feet on a side, and about a foot and a
half high (pl. 25, c). There are still left numerous spaces, both large
and small, between the cakes. These are covered with smaller pieces of
dung, and with old tin tops of lard-pails or discarded tin plates (pl.
26, a). Even after this, however, there remain enough small spaces to
allow free circulation of air, and to prevent the smothering and
consequent smoking of the vessels. Through these smaller spaces the
flames and pots may be seen. The building of the oven is now complete;
by this time the fire has usually been started, and the flames are well
under way.
As a rule more than one burning is undertaken during a morning. The
building of the oven for the second burning differs slightly in its
preliminary stages from that described above. After the previous oven
has been destroyed, the ashes are smoothed out, and the grate set
straight and carefully dusted so that no ashes remain (pl. 26, b). The
bowls are than placed on it as before. Partly burned cakes of dung,
which remain from the first burning, are re-used. If, in placing them on
the oven, ashes drop on the vessels, care is taken to blow them off.
Some potters stand the vessels which are to be burned on the warm cakes
of dung for a few minutes before placing them on the grate (pl. 26, b),
a process which is supposed to heat them slightly and thus prevent
breakage during firing. Other potters would not think of doing this, for
vessels treated in this manner always have discolored bases, where the
warm dung has touched them.
Ollas twelve to fourteen inches in diameter are burned in pairs, with a
few smaller pieces beside them. The oven is built in the same manner as
before. Very large ollas are usually fired one at a time; the oven,
except for its greater size, is said to be of the usual type.
BURNING
As was said above, the firing of the pottery is done in the morning. The
Indians say that they wish to get it over with “before the sun grows
hot”. Their own personal comfort probably plays a more important part in
this than does the effect of the sun upon the pottery. As a rule the
firing is withheld until a sufficient number of finished vessels have
accumulated to permit three or four burnings in one morning. The entire
forenoon is spent at this work, and sometimes it drags over until early
afternoon. The actual burning of the vessels occupies a period of about
half-an-hour for each oven; it is said that the length of time has not
been appreciably shortened in the past forty or fifty years. The black
ware is always saved for the last oven, since the process employed
completely precludes the possibility of rebuilding the oven at once.
At the beginning of the burning white smoke is apt to be given off, but
too much smoke is regarded as a bad sign, since it signifies that the
dung cakes are not sufficiently dried. After fifteen minutes or so, that
is when the process is about half finished, the amount of smoke has
greatly diminished (pl. 26, a). About this time more kindling is added
through openings made by temporarily removing a piece of tin, and new
cakes of dung are added where necessary, usually on the top of the oven.
The Indians say that they judge of the condition of the pottery in the
oven by its color; the paste and slip must be of just the proper shade
before the vessels are
[Illustration: PLATE 25
The building of an oven. a. A double layer of bowls is on the grate; the
woman is placing a can between a dung-slab and a bowl. b. The wall of
dung-cakes completed. c. The oven finished, but the chinks not yet
filled.]
[Illustration: PLATE 26
a. The oven fired. The chinks between the dung-slabs have been partly
closed by smaller pieces of dung. b. A firing completed and a grate
prepared for a second firing. Two vessels to be burned are warming on
hot dung-slabs; the pots that have just been taken from the fire are
cooling in the shadow of the house.]
thoroughly burned; if they are too dark the burning must continue.[49]
Some potters seem to pay little or no attention to the color of the
vessels in the oven.
When the potter considers that the burning has been completed, the cakes
of dung on the top of the oven are lifted off with a pair of pokers, and
those in the ring around the grate are tipped outward. Thus the vessels
on the grate are exposed, and their removal is begun at once. Some are
tipped on shovels or hay forks; pokers are inserted under and into
others. They are then deposited upon tins which have been placed on the
ground within six or eight feet of the oven, and are left there from ten
to twenty minutes to cool. The women often complain about the heat from
the oven during the removal of the vessels. As soon as the grate has
been cleared, preparations are begun for the next burning (pl. 26, b).
In one instance a potter decided that a certain vessel which had been
removed from the grate was not sufficiently burned. Another fire was
already in progress, but when the third was built the vessel was
replaced on the grate and burned again. When it came out, however, one
side was badly overfired.
The time occupied by various burnings is given in the following table.
The first four columns represent burnings by Maria Martinez; the last
three by Antonita Roybal. The seventh column records the oven in which
the partly fired piece was reburned, and in which a cooking vessel was
also placed.
TABLE X
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)
_Minutes_
Preparation and building of oven begun 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Fire started 25 15 06 12 15 15 09
More kindling and dung added 45 25 25 57
Oven broken up 52 37 36 41 72 40 27
Last bowl removed from grate 58 41 42 47 77 45 30
The time required for burning the different wares varies only slightly.
Some potters say that red ware takes less fuel, less heat, and less time
than polychrome ware; others place both wares in the same oven. The
difference in the time required for these two wares is probably no
greater than the chance variations in the length of burning as given in
Table X. Cooking vessels need to be fired only from one-half to
two-thirds as long as the two wares just mentioned (cf. Table X, column
7). The polished black ware will be considered later.
The changes in color before and after firing, and when hot and cool, are
very noticeable in some pigments and slips. The orange-red paint is
yellow before firing, firing turns it orange-red, almost the color of
burnt sienna; cooling produces no noticeable change in this shade.
Burning has only a fugitive effect on the red and dark-red slips. While
still hot, upon removal from the oven, these are both a dark chocolate
shade. As the vessels cool the different reds gradually reappear, until
when cold they are the same color as before firing. In some cases, these
pigments seem to be just a shade darker after firing than before. The
two kinds of white slip are a dead white when applied; after firing they
take on a slight pinkish-brown tinge, more cream than white. Cooling
produces no further change.
The most interesting change caused by firing is in the black vegetable
pigment (guaco). It has already been pointed out (p. 66), that when this
paint is laid on thickly, the line made is a little raised and glossy,
like a glaze. This “body” to the paint is probably formed by vegetable
matter in suspension in the solution. When the vessels with such
decorations are removed from the oven after burning, these lines are
seen to be white or grey. The material which formed the body of the
pigment has been reduced to white ash, which adheres to the surface, but
can be rubbed off with the finger or a cloth, while the black color
itself has been burned into the clay. Where a thin layer of the pigment
was applied, the line, after burning, is light grey, because the black
under the thin coat of ash shows through. In those vessels on which a
thick solution of pigment was used, the decorations are dead white, and
the surface of the ash is often crackled. The thickness of this ash
seems to have some effect upon the manner in which the black pigment is
burned into the clay, for in decorations covered with a thick layer of
ash, the black is of an irregular color with streaks of grey in it. When
the thin pigment is used, the resulting black on the finished vessel is
of a uniform shade. The glossiness and raised character of the pigment
is of course completely destroyed during burning. Guaco lines do not
change in shade while the vessel is cooling.
The color of the paste is little affected by burning. In both the red
and the white clays, the change is simply one of tone, that is, the clay
is lighter after burning than before. The cooking-vessel clay before
burning is greyish yellow, but after it has been removed from the oven
it is a rich orange-yellow. These cooking vessels eventually become
blackened by use over an open fire.
Vessels destined to be polished black ware are treated in quite a
different manner during the firing stage, for they are to be subjected
to a smothered fire, which will result in the deposition of carbon, thus
turning them from red to black. The oven is built in the same way, but
greater care is taken to fill gaps, so that more of the heat may be
retained. Enough spaces remain, however, to permit free circulation of
air. More kindling is used, for a hotter fire is necessary. When the
fire has reached the stage at which other wares are removed, it is
smothered with new, pulverized, loose manure. Just before the smothering
the vessels have the dark chocolate color typical of the red wares while
hot. The potter always attempts to smother the entire oven at once by
dumping upon it a whole washtubful of fine loose manure. If there is a
wind, flames are apt to break out in one or two places. They are,
however, hurriedly extinguished. When the loose manure is added, the
arch of the oven is, of course, broken, and both cakes and loose manure
come in contact with the vessels. For this reason the potter does not
exercise particular care in building the oven to keep the cakes from
touching the vessels, as they are to be entirely black in the end and a
little premature smoking does no harm. After the manure has been added,
the mound is continually prodded with a poker to redistribute the loose
manure and make certain that all the pieces are equally covered. An
extra supply of loose manure is at hand, and this is added in large and
small quantities from time to time, as occasion demands. Two washtubsful
are generally used, sometimes three. The mound of manure gives off a
dense white smoke after the smothering has begun (pl. 27, a). Great care
is taken to prevent flames from appearing, since these would remove the
carbon from the vessel.
[Illustration: PLATE 27
a. A fire smothered with loose manure to produce polished black ware. b.
Wiping vessels that have become cool enough to handle. One woman wipes
off the ashes with a dry rag, then passes them to her companion, who
goes over them with a slightly greasy cloth.]
Ten or fifteen minutes after the smothering the first piece is dug out
of the mound with the poker. It is placed a foot or two from the oven
and hastily wiped with a dry cloth to remove all manure. The surface of
the vessel is a beautiful shiny black color, which does not change at
all on cooling. If black ware paint (see p. 24) has been used, it
changes from the greenish-yellow color that it had before burning to a
dead matte black which contrasts very effectively with the polished
surface of the vessel (see pl. 8, a). At first the vessels come from the
smoking mound slowly, and all holes left in the pile by the removal of
vessels are carefully filled again, but later they are taken out as
quickly as possible, and toward the end no attempt is made to keep the
pieces still in the pile thoroughly covered. If, when a vessel is
removed, its condition does not quite suit the potter, it is replaced in
the smoking manure and completely covered.
Certain polished black vessels are further manipulated in such a way as
to produce an irregular red blotch upon them.[50] Specimens destined to
receive this red blotch, which is usually placed near the rim, are
reburied in the hot manure lying round the edge of the pile with that
portion which is to have the blotch left uncovered. Against this exposed
portion is placed a smoking fragment of a dung-slab. The action of the
heat and air results in the removal of the carbon from the surface, so
that that part of the vessel which is not covered with manure and ashes
regains its former color, the red of the pigment. Since the pot is
pushed about a good deal during this process, the line between the red
and the black surface is not always very definite, which improves the
appearance. The Indians themselves cannot tell beforehand just what
shape the blotch is going to take, and must therefore watch the vessel
continually. Sometimes burning shreds of cedar bark are placed against
the exposed surface to hasten the process, but actual flames are not
necessary in order to obtain the desired result. If the red blotch is
too large, part of it is simply recovered with hot manure-ashes, and a
few minutes later will again become jet black. So far as looks are
concerned the success or failure of this red blotch upon black ware
depends largely upon the artistic sense of the potter making it. In one
group of thirty-three polished black vessels fired together, sixteen
were given a red blotch; eight or ten of these were excellent pieces.
The time consumed in burning polished black ware is shown in Table XI.
It should be noted that before the loose manure was added, the vessels
were subjected to the fire about the same length of time as those of
other wares.
TABLE XI
_Minutes_
Preparation and building of oven begun 00 00
Fire started 16 18
More fuel added 41 39
Oven smothered with loose manure 46 45
First bowl removed 59 59
Last bowl removed 74 99
ACCIDENTS
The accidents which may occur in firing are of two general
classes--those which result from faulty treatment during the
construction of the vessel itself and those which are due to careless
manipulation in burning. The latter are the more frequent.
A vessel may crack or flake badly in the oven; often the entire base
breaks off. The fault in this case lies in the original moulding,
because small stone fragments or air-bubbles were allowed to remain
embedded in the paste. Since the rate of expansion under heat varies for
different substances, a great strain develops about such stones or
air-bubbles during firing, and the natural result is cracking or flaking
of the clay. In some larger vessels the slip flakes away around the
shoulder, where the two areas of the surface met when the polishing was
done (see p. 64). In the potter’s opinion these flakes, which are
exceedingly small, are probably caused by minute air-bubbles that had
lodged under the slip while the line about the shoulder was being
polished. A third type of accident is merely a blemish; it is due to
flies settling on a vessel before burning; the resulting fly-specks are
burned into the clay, and the surface of the pot is sprinkled with dots
quite as black as guaco decorations.
The most common form of blemish caused by careless manipulation during
firing is the “smoke-cloud” or “fire-cloud”, a circular blackened area,
the darkest part of which is at the centre. There is no question but
that this is caused by contact between the vessel and a dung-cake, and
the result is probably due to moisture in the dung which brings about a
deposit of carbon on the surface. If, during the burning, a cake of dung
falls, it will probably come in contact with the surface of some bowl.
If it is removed at once there is little danger of a smoke-cloud, and
the potter, when she notices such an accident, immediately tries to
secure the fallen cake with two pokers. With much skill she carefully
extricates it from within the oven without disturbing the other cakes
about the place from which it fell. Fire-clouds may be produced upon the
bases of vessels by setting them on hot cakes of dung before firing; or
upon damp, or relatively damp, ground immediately after firing.
Excessive dampness, such as steam from wet ground under the oven, may in
addition to discoloration, produce warping of the vessels. Another sort
of blemish is occasionally caused by rust from a tin can resting upon a
vessel during firing; such a spot is usually reddish brown in color, and
covers a very small area.
If light areas appear on polished black ware, it is safe to assume that
they were brought about by lack of proper ventilation within the oven
during the preliminary burning, such as would occur if two vessels were
so close together as to prohibit the free passage of air. If white slip
is touched just before burning, the oil from the fingers is apt to be
fired in, thus ruining the uniform appearance of the surface by the
potter’s indelible fingerprint. To avoid such an accident, polychrome
vessels are usually handled only by the interior of the rim on the day
they are burned.
Underfiring and overfiring, with consequent damage to the ware, are
usually due to gross carelessness on the part of the potter in the
irregular placing of kindling. The wind also has something to do with
it. If there is a stiff breeze blowing, the probabilities are that the
windward surfaces of vessels within the oven will be underfired, while
those in the lee of the vessels will be overfired.
[Illustration: PLATE 28
_Courtesy Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist._
ZUÑI. PREPARING CLAY
a. Pulverizing dry ingredients on flat stone slab with a _mano_ or hand
stone.
b. Wetting, mixing, and kneading clay; water-container in foreground;
prepared clay in bowl.]
[Illustration: PLATE 29
_Courtesy Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist._
ZUÑI. MOULDING
a. Lower part of vessel completed; potter forming roll of clay with
which to continue building.
b. Applying roll of clay; left hand guides roll; right hand welds it to
side of vessel.]
[Illustration: PLATE 30
_Courtesy Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist._
ZUÑI. SURFACING
a. Going over outside of vessel with moulding tool to smooth out
irregularities.
b. Vessel has been removed from base-mould and covered with white slip
from bowl in foreground. Potter now polishing slip with rubbing
stone.]
[Illustration: PLATE 31
ZUÑI. PAINTING AND FIRING
a. Applying design with yucca-leaf brush. Black pigment in shallow stone
mortar, red in small white bowl. b. Building oven of dung cakes--note
kindling at feet of figure at right. c. Oven domed over and set afire.
(Photographs from American Museum of Natural History).]
In underfired vessels the color of the pigments is not true, being
usually midway between the unfired color and the fired color; as a rule
the paste is also dark and friable. Overfiring is more easily detected
than underfiring. A slight overfiring may be first noticed in the black
guaco paint, which has a tendency to become bluish and light if burned
too much. Other bad results follow in quick succession as overfiring is
increased: at an early stage the white slip becomes smoky; in severe
overfiring it may turn black, as in a smoke-cloud; the paint of the
designs is apt to flake off; and finally, in a bad case, the guaco will
turn nearly white.
TREATMENT AFTER BURNING
Polished black vessels, when removed from the fire, are set directly
upon the ground within a foot or two of the oven. They are at once wiped
hastily with a dry cloth to prevent any fragments of the new manure from
sticking to the surface. When the vessels are sufficiently cooled they
are again wiped with a clean dry cloth and taken into the house for
storage. Occasionally the first wiping, while the bowl is still hot, is
omitted.
When pieces of polychrome ware or red ware are removed from the oven
they are placed on the ground some six or eight feet from the fire,
resting on tins in order to prevent possible discoloration from contact
with the damp soil, as well as to prevent dust and dirt from sticking to
their bases. The vessels are piled on these tins in any manner, often
three or four on top of one another. When the pottery first comes from
the fire, it is still much too hot to touch, and radiates heat
copiously. Ten or fifteen minutes later, when the vessels are cool
enough to handle, they are removed from the tins and collected at some
convenient place to await wiping.
First the pieces are gone over with a clean dry cloth to take off the
guaco ashes and any dust that may remain from the oven (pl. 27, b). Each
vessel is then wiped with a slightly greasy cloth, which gives a faint
sheen to the surface and removes the blue tinge which is apt to be found
in the black guaco-covered areas. Some potters have substituted a
chamois skin for this second cloth. It took the two women shown in pl.
27, b, just fifteen minutes to wipe with the two kinds of cloths the
twenty-two vessels figured. When the wiping is done, the pottery is
carried to the house and stored in one of the rooms. The pieces are
placed on the floor, usually with a carpet or rug under them, and
covered with a sheet to keep off dust and flies.
The time occupied in each of the individual stages of pottery making has
been considered, but the total time, from the beginning of the moulding
until the finished vessels are placed in the store room under a sheet,
is far in excess of the mere sum of the separate hours and minutes used
in each process. Household duties and other tasks are constantly
interfering with the work. About nine o’clock on a certain morning one
potter began moulding the first of a group of perhaps forty pieces. The
scraping was commenced on the morning of the third day, and the
polishing on the fourth morning. Nothing was done on the fifth day, but
early on the sixth the painting began. A fiesta interrupted the work for
two more days, and the burning was done on the morning of the tenth day,
although it could have taken place on the seventh. Another potter
finished burning several large ollas at noon on the ninth day.
PAINTING OF DESIGNS
By means of the decorations on the vessels the potter expresses her
personality. The type of design used by any one potter is very constant,
and is distinctly individual. It is a comparatively easy matter, by an
inspection of the design alone, to distinguish the vessels made by one
potter from those of another.
The designs are planned in several different ways. Maria Martinez sits
with the bowl in her hands for a few minutes doing nothing; apparently
she is working out in her mind the combination of elements which she
will use. Designs so conceived are generally simple. Maximiliana
Martinez begins painting almost at once. While she is working ideas
occur to her and are incorporated. Occasionally, after the painting has
been completed and the vessel set aside, she will pick it up again to
add some detail. This method of working is apt to cause somewhat
involved figures. Antonita Roybal, in choosing her designs, refers to
drawings of her own, or to photographs which have come into her hands,
of old San Ildefonso vessels. This potter uses a pencil to outline very
sketchily the design upon the vessel, as an aid in obtaining the proper
symmetry. The figures obtained in this manner are usually very
elaborate.[51]
The first lines drawn in a design are almost without exception the
enclosing lines under the rim. These are followed by the enclosing lines
near the shoulder (in the case of an olla), or near the bottom of the
interior (in the case of a bowl). When the design consists of panels,
the vertical division-lines are then added. If there are to be four
panels, one division-line is drawn, and then the one on the opposite
side of the bowl, dividing the surface into halves. Each of these halves
is then bisected. The next step is to double all the vertical
division-lines. Occasionally each quadrant is judged by the eye only,
and the division lines are drawn in sequence about the vessel. When
there are to be either more or less than four panels, they are outlined
one after the other. No measuring instrument of any kind is used.
After the skeleton of the design has been completed, the outlines of the
figure within each panel are drawn. All the lines are first placed in
one panel, then the second panel is finished, and so on, until all have
been filled with the outlines. All the areas on the vessel that are to
be colored black are then filled, followed by the areas which are to be
red. The strokes taken in outlining are not always made in the same
order in the various panels. Such variation is entirely natural and
should be expected in work done without the use of a visible pattern.
When a design is attached to the lower enclosing line of a panel, it
usually consists of a repetition of some small figure of one or two
elements. The position of such added figures has absolutely no relation
in the mind of the potter to the panel-design.
When a design consists of a repetition of figures not enclosed within
panels, the painter always refers, before adding another figure, to the
amount of the surface as yet unfilled. The correctness of the painter’s
judgment is therefore easily determined by the proportions of the last
figure in the design as compared with the remaining figures. As a rule,
with the product of the present-day potters of San Ildefonso, it is
exceedingly difficult to determine in a finished vessel, which of the
figures was the last one drawn.
In designs which consist of a single figure, or of two or more figures,
with several complex elements, the development of the design upon the
vessel is necessarily at variance with that described above. As a
general rule, each element is completed, including the filling of areas,
before the next element is outlined. Similarly, each figure is finished
before the next is begun.
In considering generally the ornamentation of San Ildefonso vessels, a
distinct group-similarity can be observed. The polychrome vessels are
painted in black and orange-red upon a white base. The red-ware vessels
are decorated only in black. The designs usually consist of several
almost identical figures, each composed of a small number of rather
simple elements, in which curved lines are common. And yet, in spite of
this almost indefinable similarity among the vessels, the differences
between the designs made by different potters of the village are
clear-cut and distinct.
Maria Martinez specializes in constricted-mouthed and similarly shaped
bowls of polychrome ware. Her lines are relatively narrow, and the black
of the design is very uniform in color. She uses panelled designs almost
exclusively. The elements within the panels are simple, and few in
number. Her work is easily recognized because of its simplicity and
pleasing composition (see pl. 6). Maximiliana Martinez generally
confines herself to red ware in the form of small ollas and small bowls
with a slightly constricted lip. Her lines are somewhat wider and more
uneven than those of Maria, and the black is of varying shades. As a
result of her custom of developing the design as the work progresses,
the figures are rather complex and intricate, or, as the Indians
themselves say, “mixed up”. The outstanding characteristic of her work
is the use of one or more elements entirely detached from the figure
proper. Antonita Roybal devotes most of her time to making large ollas
of red ware. Her lines are relatively broad, often indeed of double
width. Her blacks are also uneven. The designs upon her vessels are
usually composed of two or four very large, complex figures, in which
spiral curves are conspicuous. Dotting, crosshatching, and filling of
many small areas characterize her work. The products of a man painter,
Julian Martinez, are easily recognized by the abundant use of very
narrow lines. The figures, which are usually composed of many intricate
elements, impress one with the amount of detailed and careful work
lavished upon them. Julian has obviously been strongly influenced by the
technique of modern Hopi potters, such as the famous Nampeo, whose work
he of course often sees in the curio-stores and in the State Museum at
Santa Fe.
In the following pages typical designs of Maria, Maximiliana, and
Antonita are discussed in detail, with the aid of figures upon which the
direction and order of the strokes have been indicated. These drawings
are given in order to amplify and clarify the general statements made
above.
DRAWING NO. 1 (fig. 9); original by Maria Martinez. This design was on a
constricted-mouthed polychrome bowl, and consisted of four identical
panels, each four and one-half inches long by two and one-half inches
wide. The work was divided into four distinct sections, or stages, each
of which was completed in all four panels, one after the other, before
the next stage was begun.
_First stage_ (fig. 9, a); construction of the framing lines. Lines 1-4
are drawn completely around the bowl; then lines 5-8. The corresponding
two pairs of lines are then drawn upon the other half of the bowl, thus
dividing the space into four sections.
_Second stage_ (fig. 9, b); placing of the outlines within each panel.
The first three lines drawn (9-11) divide the panel into three
triangles. Then the details are
[Illustration: FIG. 9. The growth of a polychrome design as painted by
Maria Martinez (the shading indicates red).]
outlined in each triangle in turn. When the outlining of one panel has
been completed, each of the other panels is treated in turn in the same
manner. The work of Maria is noteworthy in that the order and direction
of the lines and the filling of spaces is hardly ever changed from one
panel to the next.
_Third stage_ (fig. 9, c); filling certain areas with solid black paint.
The largest area (I) is always filled first. No order is followed in
filling areas II, III, and IV, and in making the dot (V). In one panel,
IV is filled before II, in another V precedes the other three. After
this the dots (VI) are placed below line 21. In the different panels the
number of these dots varies from six to eight. The last area filled in
this stage is the triangle VII. When the first panel has been completed
the other three are treated in like manner before the fourth stage is
begun.
_Fourth stage_ (fig. 9, d); filling of areas with red paint (shown in
the reproduction by shading). In some panels area VIII precedes area IX,
in others the reverse is the
[Illustration: PLATE 32
Design by Maria Martinez]
case. With the completion of this fourth stage in all the panels, the
painting of this comparatively simple design is finished. The time
consumed was twenty-five minutes.
DRAWING NO. 2 (pl. 32); original by Maria Martinez. This design may be
placed upon either a constricted-mouthed bowl or an olla-bowl. It is
made up of five identical panels. During the painting the bowl is turned
counterclockwise. There are eleven distinct stages.
_First stage_ (pl. 32, a); the enclosing lines of the panels are
produced. Each panel is four inches long and one and a half inches wide.
The horizontal lines (1-4) are drawn completely around the bowl before
the dividing lines (5-8) are drawn.
_Second stage_ (pl. 32, b); lines 9 and 10 are drawn, dividing each of
the five panels into a semicircle and two triangles.
_Third stage_ (pl. 32, c); the plumes are outlined in each of the panels
by means of lines 11 to 20.
_Fourth stage_ (pl. 32, d); the two triangles (areas I and II) are
filled with black pigment. Sometimes area I is filled first, sometimes
area II.
_Fifth stage_ (pl. 32, e); when the triangles in all five panels have
been filled, the dots are placed in two of the five plumes in each panel
(areas III and IV). These dots are sometimes six in number, sometimes
seven. They are painted from the base of the plume upwards.
_Sixth stage_ (pl. 32, b); areas V to VII are filled with red pigment,
thus completing the panel-design.
_Seventh stage_ (pl. 32, g); now that the design in the panel has been
finished, the second half of the figure, that below the bottom enclosing
line, is begun. A series of small semicircles (lines numbered 21) are
appended to the lowest enclosing line. The position of the semicircles
bears no relation whatever to the series of panels. Three and a half to
four semicircles fall below each panel or a total of from seventeen to
twenty in the entire extent of the design as it encircles the vessel.
_Eighth stage_ (pl. 32. g); by means of lines 22 and 23, a triangle is
outlined below each of the semicircles.
_Ninth stage_ (pl. 32, h); a very small semicircle (24) is drawn just
below the point of each triangle.
_Tenth stage_ (pl. 32, h); another similar semicircle (line 25) is drawn
just below line 24.
_Eleventh stage_ (pl. 32, i); the triangles (areas numbered VIII) are
filled with black pigment.
Although this figure is based upon the panel-design, it differs from
pure panel-decoration in the use of a series of simple figures appended
to the bottom enclosing-line of the panel. The time required to paint
this design was thirty-five minutes.
DRAWING NO. 3 (pl. 33); original by Maria Martinez. This design is of an
entirely different type, in that there is no use of a panel. It was
placed upon a constricted-mouthed bowl.
_First stage_ (pl. 33, a); the enclosing lines (1, 2) are drawn around
the rim of the vessel. These are immediately followed by the three lines
(3 to 5) which form the outlines of the five spirals composing the
design. The proportions of the figures were determined by constantly
watching the position of the first spiral as the bowl was turned
counterclockwise.
_Second stage_ (pl. 33, b); the outlines of the details (lines 6 to 17)
are drawn on each spiral in turn.
_Third stage_ (pl. 33, c); the outlining is completed by adding to each
spiral a horizontal triangle at the base of the curve. It is interesting
to note that line 18, the first of the group 18 to 21, was the first one
drawn, although it was entirely detached at that time from the main
figure.
_Fourth stage_ (pl. 33, d); the filling of areas is begun by painting
the four small triangles on the upward curve of the spiral (areas I to
IV). The order in which they are filled is apt to vary with the
different spirals.
_Fifth stage_ (pl. 33, e); the large triangle at the base of the spiral
(area V) is filled with black pigment.
_Sixth stage_ (pl. 33, f); the triangle at the bottom (area VI) is
filled in each unit.
_Seventh stage_ (pl. 33, g); this consists in placing a series of dots
along the median line of the leaf-shaped area in the base of the spiral.
In the various spirals these dots vary in number from eight to ten.
_Eighth stage_ (pl. 33, h); the design is completed by filling the red
areas (VIII and IX). In the first spiral so treated, area VIII was
filled first, but in all the others area IX preceded area VIII.
The base of each spiral is four and one-half inches long. The width of
the design is three inches.
DRAWING NO. 4 (pl. 34); original by Maximiliana Martinez. This rosette
was placed in the interior bottom of a small constricted-mouthed bowl of
red ware. A cloud-design which was painted on the rim of the same bowl
is described and illustrated in fig. 6.
_First stage_ (pl. 34, a); the outlines of one set of four leaves are
drawn (lines 1-8).
_Second stage_ (pl. 34, b); the areas within these enclosing lines are
hatched (areas I-IV). These four areas are filled in clockwise rotation.
_Third stage_ (pl. 34, c); the same areas (numbered V-VIII) are
crosshatched, starting at the tip of each area and working towards the
centre.
_Fourth stage_ (pl. 34, d); four more leaves are drawn between the four
already made. After lines 9 and 10 are drawn, the area between them is
filled with black pigment, leaving an oblique white bar, before lines 11
and 12 are placed upon the vessel. Each of the four leaves is entirely
completed before the next is begun.
_Fifth stage_ (pl. 34, e); this consists in the placing of four lines
(17-20) at the end of each of the four longer leaves. These four groups
of lines are drawn upon the design in clockwise rotation.
_Sixth stage_ (pl. 34, f); at this point Maximiliana glanced at the
drawing which the writer was making in his notes. By accident the ends
of the shorter leaves had there been made more pointed than the actual
painting. When she saw this, she pointed the tips of these leaves with
black to make them correspond in shape to the writer’s drawing.
[Illustration: PLATE 33
Design by Maria Martinez]
[Illustration: PLATE 34
Design by Maximiliana Martinez]
This is an excellent example of the type of work done by a painter who
develops her pattern while drawing it. The contrast between this and the
simple strength of the first three designs (fig. 9 and pls. 32, 33)
should be noticed.
DRAWING NO. 5 (fig. 10); original by Maximiliana Martinez. This is a
border decoration that was applied to the edge of the
constricted-mouthed bowl on which was produced Drawing No. 4.
_First stage_ (fig. 10, a); this is the drawing of the two enclosing
lines (1 and 2) about the lip of the bowl. These are followed at once by
3 to 5, which outline three small semicircles. Eight of these triple
semicircles complete the circumference of the bowl.
_Second stage_ (fig. 10, b); the three semicircles are filled with dots
of pigment, two in each of the upper ones, three in the lower.
_Third stage_ (fig. 10, c); the three small lines are added to the
lowest of the three semicircles.
The painting of the rosette (pl. 34) and the eight sets of semicircles
took just sixteen minutes.
DRAWING NO. 6 (pl. 35); original by Antonita Roybal. This elaborate
decoration was placed upon a large red ware olla. Antonita, it may be
noted, specializes
[Illustration: FIG. 10. Raincloud design by Maximiliana Martinez]
in vessels of this sort, and her designs, while not slavishly repeated,
all have a strong family resemblance, due to her bold use of scrolls and
step-figures. The small upper drawing illustrates the method by which
the design under consideration is applied to the vessel. In the larger
one it is projected flat; the centre circle represents the mouth of the
olla. The time taken for painting the various parts of the pattern is
incorporated in the description; the total time at the end of each stage
being given immediately thereafter.
_Framework lines._ The heavy double-width line forming the middle of the
central square is drawn first. Then two narrower lines are drawn, one
inside and one outside, thus completing the square (sixteen minutes;
00:00-16:00).
The two lines encircling the mouth of the olla are next produced (four
minutes; 16:00-20:00).
_Neck-design within the square._ Each of the four corners of the square
is ornamented with a small scroll-ended element. Each element is first
outlined and then filled with black before the next is begun (twelve and
one-half minutes; 20:30-32:00).
Small irregularly placed spots are then dotted into the remaining
surface within the square (six minutes; 33:00-39:00).
_The medallions._ Appended to each of the four corners of the original
square is a flower-like medallion. The drawing of each is done as
follows. The outer line is first traced, then the inner one. Next the
inner part is filled with black, except for a narrow band across the
middle. To the exterior ring are added the outlines of the nine
radiating elements. As a last step these are filled with black. The olla
is then turned counterclockwise and the next medallion is begun.
Each medallion is completed more quickly than the last. The time: No. 1,
ten minutes (39:00-49:00); No. 2, eight minutes (49:00-57:00); No. 3,
seven and one-half minutes (57:00-64:30); No. 4, six and one-half
minutes (64:30-71:00).
_The side patterns._ Each of the four sides of the square bears a design
composed of two scrolls with a double stepped element and two long
appendages between them. Each design is completed before the next is
begun. The drawing proceeds as follows:
1. The outlining of the scrolls and the drawing of the crossbar between
them.
2. The outlining of the central stepped figures.
3. The filling of the stepped figures with black.
4. The outlining of the two long appendages between the scrolls.
5. The filling of the appendages with black, leaving two narrow
crossbars in the ground color.
6. The addition of the two small appendages between the stepped figures.
7. The outlining of a central streak ending in a small circle in each of
the scrolls.
8. The filling of the scrolls with black, leaving the central streak and
small circle in the ground color.
As in the case of the medallions, each one of the side patterns is
completed more quickly than the last. The time: No. 1, twenty-six
minutes (71:00-97:00); No. 2, twenty-two and a half minutes
(97:00-119:30); No. 3, twenty-one and a half minutes (119:30-141:00);
No. 4, fourteen and a half minutes (141:00-155:30). The entire time
required for painting the design was thus two hours, thirty-five
minutes, and thirty seconds.
[Illustration: PLATE 35
Black design on red jar by Antonita Roybal (the small drawing above
shows how this design is applied to the olla).]
SYMBOLISM[52]
Symbolism of one kind or another, plays a very important part in the
existence of the Pueblo Indian. It is generally agreed that even the
minor acts of everyday life have a certain religious symbolic meaning.
For example, the gourd spoons, or kajepes, used in moulding pottery,
must apparently be consecrated before they may be used. Similarly, a new
technique in pottery making must pass through a period of consecration
before it becomes completely established. On the other hand, white men
often overemphasize the importance of symbolism in studying any
civilization whose customs and philosophy differ radically from their
own.
In the light of what is known of the mental attitude of the Pueblo
Indian, it would not be unreasonable to assume that the designs on their
pottery have some symbolical meaning. Whether this symbolism is in any
sense religious, or is merely the symbolism of conventionalization of
design, is an open question.[53] It is probable that vessels made before
the time when pottery became to some extent an article of commerce
between the Indian and the tourist, bore designs of symbolical meaning.
It may be that the vessels made today for their own use also have such
meanings, but there is every reason to believe that much of the ware now
turned out by the San Ildefonso potters for sale to tourists bears
designs of no special meaning.
It is true that through bitter experience, the Indians have learned to
guard carefully their religious and secular philosophy, and it would
require many years of study, living with them, to gain an intimate
knowledge of their beliefs. If, however, there are definite meanings
associated with the designs upon commercial pottery, the inhabitants of
San Ildefonso have become past masters of the art of concealment.
An attempt to obtain some idea of the general reason why vessels are
decorated and of what was taking place in the mind of the painter while
at work, proved wholly fruitless. Inquiries as to the meaning of whole
designs, figures, and elements met with three kinds of response. One
family, who have enjoyed considerable contact with investigators of
Indian customs, were ready and eager with explanations of the meanings
of various elements. They could not, however, explain the meaning of the
entire design upon any vessel. Other potters met the inquiry with a
frank statement of ignorance, such as “I don’t know”, or “Ask the men,
the women don’t know”. A third group exhibited great uncertainty. These
people would usually translate the questions into Tewa for the benefit
of the rest of the Indians present. Then, after much laughter and
discussion, the potter would sometimes offer a meaning, at other times
say nothing. One old man explained with great gusto that the design
which he had just finished upon a small globular olla represented four
small clouds sailing across the sky, one behind the other, from west to
east. His manner was very similar to that which one of us might adopt in
telling an improbable yarn to a particularly guileless listener.
Some potters gave meanings for whole figures. Another potter, however,
composed her figures as the work advanced, evidently with no clear idea,
when she began it, of the ultimate form of the figures and therefore
probably with no idea in regard to their meaning. It has been suggested
that minor variation in similar figures on the same vessel have some
meaning. The more probable explanation would seem to be that these
variations are due to the lack of a visible pattern. At one time a
potter was distinctly annoyed because she noticed, after completing a
figure, that she had filled the wrong part of a small detail.
It is equally fallacious to lay too great importance upon alternating
figures in a panel design. For example, one potter in filling the areas
in a four-panel decoration filled the same areas in the first and third
panels, and different areas in the second. When she began to fill the
areas of the fourth panel in the same way as the first and third, her
attention was called to the areas in the second, the order of which she
obviously considered a mistake. The result was that the fourth panel was
filled as the second had been, thus giving the vessel a panel-design
with alternating figures.
The fact that in excavations no two vessels have ever been found with
identical designs has been attributed to something in the Indian’s way
of thinking. Yet one potter at San Ildefonso placed upon one
constricted-mouthed bowl out of a group of vessels a design identical
with that on a bowl of the same shape in the previous group made.
Among older pots the “line-break”, a small space left in the horizontal
enclosing-line at the lip of the vessel, is a constant element. At San
Ildefonso its use has become almost obsolete but one of the informants
did employ it. Careful questioning on the subject with another potter as
interpreter, brought out the fact that the line-break is called a
“door”, through which a spirit may enter or depart. Persistent
questioning in regard to the nature of the spirit caused an animated
discussion among those present. The potter was clearly puzzled by the
questions. Then, after a single sentence by her, the Indians all laughed
heartily. Finally, the interpreter stated that the potter had said, in
effect, that if the door was going to cause all that trouble she would
close it. The matter was finally settled by the interpreter, who pointed
out a passage in the advertising pamphlet of a Santa Fe curio-dealer
which explained that the line-break was a passage through which the
spirits of the dead might pass.
The ready answers given by some potters in response to inquiries as to
the meaning of elements of a design, seem to show that the elements are
actually conventionalized symbols of definite objects. In one instance
the potter, on noticing a dance-costume lying on the bed, pointed out
certain parts of it, and then drew the elements representing those
parts. Other potters simply deny all knowledge of the meaning of
elements. Still others by their hesitancy, seem to grope for a
plausible meaning and offer the first which occurs to them. Whether the
elements do represent definite objects or not, it nevertheless remains a
fact that the meanings given cause apparent contradictions. To elements
essentially the same widely different meanings are often given and,
conversely, the same idea or object
[Illustration: FIG. 11. Elements of design commonly used by the potters
of San Ildefonso.]
is often represented by entirely different elements. This is also true
of more complex figures.
The elements illustrated in figure 11, give examples of the type of idea
or object said to be represented, and incidentally illustrate some of
the contradictions spoken of above. Numbers 1 and 6 both refer to hills.
On the other hand, No. 7 is a mountain, although it bears little
resemblance to the “hills”. It resembles more closely No. 2 which one
informant described as a pueblo and another as a kiva. The same regular
zigzag appears in No. 12, which represents a tablita, or dance mask,
with small feathers tied to the points of the zigzags. No. 17, in which
the zigzag also appears, represents kiva-steps. Nos. 11 and 16 represent
feathers, and No. 21 is a bunch of feathers on the end of a dance-pole.
But No. 22 represents the poles of the kiva-ladder, and No. 3 is rain,
which is falling a long way off. No. 10 represents fringed woolen
armlets, and yet there is as close a resemblance between Nos. 3 and 10,
as there is between Nos. 14 and 19, both of which represent the tassels
on a man’s dance-belt. No. 8 is called rain-water, but a single spiral,
as in No. 25, is a buffalo horn. The dots of No. 13 represent rain-drops
in dust, but in No. 21 the dots are markings on feathers, and in No. 15
they represent a procession of bugs on the rib of a leaf. No. 18
represents water dripping through a hole in the roof and making a small
cup-like depression in the floor, represented by a semicircle, or a
whole circle with a dot in the centre of it; but No. 23, which is also a
triangle, is called a leaf, as is also the case with No. 15. And yet No.
4 is also a leaf, although if placed horizontally it more closely
resembles the clouds represented in No. 5. But No. 9 is also a cloud,
this time a big black cloud with an open space in it through which a
small cloud may be seen. Nos. 20 and 24 represent respectively the sun
and a star.
In the light of the small amount of material obtained on the subject of
symbolism, all that can be said is that the evidence is purely negative.
If the elements do represent definite ideas and objects, which seems to
the writer improbable, the meanings are so deeply hidden that only an
intensive specialized study will result in an acceptable solution.
MEANING OF ELEMENTS
(M.--Maria. A.--Antonita)
1--“hillside”, M.
2--“pueblo”, M.; “kiva”, A.
3--“rain falling far away”, A.
4--“leaf”, M.
5--“clouds”, M.; A.
6--“hill”, M.
7--“mountain”, M.
8--“rainwater”, A.
9--“black cloud with open space through which one can see a small cloud”, A.
10--“fringed woolen dance armlets”, M.
11--“feather”, M.
12--“tableta (wooden headdress) with feathers on points”, M.
13--“rain-drops on dust”, A.
14--“tassel on man’s dance-belt”, M.
15--“leaf with bugs on it”, M.
16--“feather”, M.
17--“kiva-steps, the two small points fireplaces”, A.
18--“water dripping through holes in roof and making holes in dirt floor”, M.
19--“tassel on man’s dance-belt”, M.
20--“sun”, A.
21--“feathers on dance-pole, spots are markings on feathers”, M.
22--“ladder-poles”, A.
23--“leaf”, M.
24--“star”, A.
25--“buffalo horn”, A.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BINNS, C. F.
1910. The potter’s craft. New York, 1910.
HARRINGTON, J. P.
1916. The ethnogeography of the Tewa Indians. _Twenty-ninth Report
of the Bureau of American Ethnology._ Washington, 1916.
1916, a. Ethnobotany of the Tewa Indians (In collaboration with W.
W. Robbins and B. Friere-Marreco). _Bulletin 55, Bureau of American
Ethnology._ Washington, 1916.
HOLMES, W. H.
1886. Pottery of the ancient Pueblos. _Fourth Report of the Bureau
of Ethnology_, pp. 257-360. Washington, 1886.
KIDDER, A. V.
1924. An introduction to the study of Southwestern archaeology,
with a preliminary account of the excavations at Pecos. _Papers of
the Phillips Academy Southwestern Expedition_, no. 1. New Haven,
1924.
KIDDER, M. A. and A. V.
1917. Notes on the pottery of Pecos. _American Anthropologist_,
n.s., vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 325-360. Lancaster, 1917.
STEVENSON, J.
1883. Illustrated catalogue of the collections obtained from the
Indians of New Mexico and Arizona in 1879. _Second Report of the
Bureau of Ethnology_, pp. 307-465. Washington, 1883.
1884. Illustrated catalogue of the collections obtained from the
pueblos of Zuñi, New Mexico, and Wolpi, Arizona, in 1881. _Third
Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_, pp. 511-594. Washington, 1884.
STEVENSON, M. C.
1904. The Zuñi Indians, their mythology, esoteric fraternities, and
ceremonies. _Twenty-third Report of the Bureau of American
Ethnology._ Washington, 1904.
1915. Ethnobotany of the Zuñi Indians. _Thirtieth Report of the
Bureau of American Ethnology_, pp. 31-102. Washington, 1915.
WOOTON, E. O. AND STANDLEY, PAUL C.
1915. Flora of New Mexico. _Contributions from the United States
National Herbarium_, Vol. 19. Washington 1915.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] A brief history of Pecos, and a description of the work so far
done at the site, are contained in “An Introduction to the Study of
Southwestern Archaeology, with a Preliminary Account of the Excavations
at Pecos”, by A. V. Kidder; No. 1 of the present series.
[2] Kidder, 1924.
[3] Kidder, M. A. and A. V., 1917, p. 330.
[4] A searching study of San Ildefonso decoration has been made by
K. M. Chapman of Santa Fe. When this is published it will throw much
light on the morphology of Pueblo design, and upon the relation of San
Ildefonso symbolism to that of other Rio Grande pueblos.
[5] A vocabulary of the Tewa terms for clays, paints, and other
ingredients; articles of paraphernalia; types of pottery; processes of
pottery making, etc., was recorded by Dr. Guthe, and is available at
Andover for consultation.
[6] See Harrington, 1916, Map 19, point 63. Under the nearby point (60;
p. 314) he says: “Clay ... is obtained at this place; just where could
not be learned.”
[7] Stevenson, to whom with Mrs. Stevenson we are indebted for
practically our only comparative material, wrote in 1879 of Zuñi: “The
clay mostly used by the Zuñians in the manufacture of pottery is a
dark, bluish, carbonaceous clayey shale found in layers usually near
the tops of the mesas” (1883, p. 329). Later, Mrs. Stevenson described
at some length the ceremony of securing pottery clay (1904, p. 374).
Among the San Ildefonso Indians of today there is no outward evidence
of any such ceremony.
[8] At Zuñi the ingredients are ground and mixed, and the clay is
kneaded on a stone slab. (See pl. 28, facing p. 76.)
[9] Stevenson said, in speaking of Zuñi pottery making: “This
carbonaceous clay is first mixed with water and kneaded as a baker
kneads dough until it reaches the proper consistency” (1883, p. 329).
Mrs. Stevenson describes the preparation of clay at Zuñi as follows:
“The clay is ground to a powder and mixed with a small quantity of
pulverized pottery, fragments of the latter being carefully hoarded for
this purpose. The powder thus compounded is mixed with water enough
to make a pasty mass, which is kneaded like dough. The more care
taken in pulverizing the material and the more time spent in working
it, the finer becomes the paste. When the mass reaches such a state
of consistency that the fingers can no longer detect the presence of
gritty particles, it is still more delicately tested with the tongue,
and when found to be satisfactory it is placed in a vessel and covered
with a cloth, where it will retain the moisture until wanted for use”
(1904, p. 374-5).
[10] Stevenson (1883, p. 329) says: “With this (clay), crushed
volcanic lava is sometimes mixed; but the Zuñians more frequently
pulverize fragments of broken pottery, which have been preserved for
this purpose. This seems to prevent explosion, cracking, or fracture
by rendering the paste sufficiently porous to allow the heat to pass
through without injurious effect.” And again: “The clays used by the
Santa Clara Indians are of a brick-red color, containing an admixture
of very fine sand, which, no doubt, prevents cracking in burning, and
hence dispenses with the necessity of using lava or pottery fragments,
as is the custom of the Indians of the western pueblos” (1883, p. 331).
Binns, in “The Potter’s Craft”, describing the preparation of clay,
says, “If the clay prove very sandy it must be washed, ... but all
the sand should not be removed. Clay with no sand in it will be apt
to crack in drying and burning. Clay with too much sand will be short
and brittle in working. If the clay is very smooth and shows no sand,
a little fine builder’s sand may be added with advantage, a definite
proportion being used and recorded” (1910, p. 40).
[11] Stevenson, in his catalogue of Zuñi collections, enumerated
“_Tierra amarilla_, or yellow micaceous clay, of which the Rio Grande
Indians make many varieties of vessels” (1883, p. 368).
[12] Harrington, in speaking of a clay-pit near the village of Las
Truchas, writes: “It is said that at this place the best red pottery
clay known to the Tewa is obtained. It is pebbly, but makes very strong
dishes, and it is used especially for ollas. It is said that Tewa of
various pueblos visit this place frequently and carry away the clay.
The clay deposit is a mile or two southeast of Truchas town” (1916, p.
340). This may be the claypit referred to by the informant, although
the clay, while pebbly, is by no means red.
[13] Stevenson, writing of the Zuñi, said of their white slip: “A paint
or solution is then made, either of a fine white calcareous earth,
consisting mainly of carbonate of lime, or of a milk-white indurated
clay, almost wholly insoluble in acids, and apparently derived from
decomposed feldspar with a small proportion of mica” (1883, p. 329).
Mrs. Stevenson, in a later publication, said: “A white clay is
dissolved in water and then made into cones which are dried in the sun.
When required for use these cones are rubbed to powder on a stone,
again mixed with water, and applied in a liquid state to the object”
(1904, p. 375).
[14] Harrington mentions this bed as “a deposit of bright red paint
situated about two miles east of Santa Fe, the informants think north
of Santa Fe Creek, in high land a few hundred yards from that creek.
This paint was used for body painting. It is said that Jicarilla Apache
still go to the deposit to get this paint and sometimes sell it to
the Tewa” (1916, p. 354). Stevenson is speaking of the black ware of
Santa Clara and other Rio Grande pueblos, mentions “a solution of very
fine ochre-colored clay” (1883, p. 331), which was probably this same
substance. Mrs. Stevenson also mentions “red ochre” (1904, p. 375).
[15] Stevenson, writing of the Zuñis in 1881, said: “The material used
to produce the red or brown colors is a yellowish impure clay, colored
from oxide of iron; indeed it is mainly clay, but contains some sand
and a very small amount of carbonate of lime”; it “is generally found
in a hard, stony condition, and is ground in a small stone mortar ...
and mixed with water so as to form a thin solution” (1883, p. 330).
Mrs. Stevenson added later: “Ferruginous clays which on heating burn to
yellow, red, or brown are employed for decorating” (1904, p. 375).
[16] _Peritoma serrulatum_ (Pursh); synonyms: _Cleome serrulata_, and
_Cleome integrifolia_; (Wooton and Standley, 1915, p. 290). Stevenson
wrote: “It is said that among the Cochiti, Santa Clara, and some
other pueblos a vegetable matter is employed to produce some of their
decorative designs; this, however, I was unable to verify, though
some of the Indians assured me of the fact, and furnished me a bunch
of the plant, which Dr. Vasey, of the Agricultural Department, found
to be _Cleome integrifolia_, a plant common throughout the Western
Territories” (1883, p. 331). Again, “That of the decorated class is
ornamented with the juice of _Cleome integrifolia_, which is fixed to
the ware in the process of burning” (loc. cit., p. 430). Harrington
writes: “This is a very important plant to the Tewa, inasmuch as black
paint for pottery decoration is made from it. Large quantities of young
plants are collected, usually in July. The plants are boiled well in
water; the woody parts are then removed and the decoction is again
allowed to boil until it becomes thick and attains a black color. This
thick fluid is poured on a board to dry and soon becomes hardened. It
may be kept in hard cakes for an indefinite period. When needed these
are soaked in hot water until of the consistency needed for paint.
Guaco is also used as a food. The hardened cakes are soaked in hot
water, and then fried in grease. The finely ground plants are mixed
with water and the liquid is drunk as a remedy for stomach disorders;
or sometimes fresh plants wrapped in a cloth are applied to the
abdomen” (1916, a, pp. 58, 59). (It should be noted that the accounts
obtained by the writer from the informants of San Ildefonso do not
agree in detail with the one given by Harrington.) Mrs. Stevenson wrote
of Zuñi: “Water from boiled _Cleome serrulata_ (Mexican name waco)
is mixed with black pigment (a manganiferous clay containing organic
matter) in decorating pottery” (1904, p. 375); and in more detail: “The
entire plant, minus the root, is boiled for a considerable time, and
the water in which it is cooked is allowed to evaporate. The firm paste
secured from precipitation is used in conjunction with a black mineral
paint for decorating pottery” (1915, p. 92).
[17] Stevenson, in 1879, saw the Rio Grande Pueblo potters use
“coarsely broken dried manure obtained from the corrals”, and added
that for the polished black ware “another application of fuel, finely
pulverized, is made” (1883, p. 331).
[18] Stevenson, in 1879, observed at Zuñi that “the bottoms of old
water jars and bowls form stands for the articles while being worked by
the potter. The bowls are filled with sand when objects of a globular
form are to be made” (1883, p. 329). At Pojuaque (a Tewa pueblo near
San Ildefonso, now nearly extinct) he collected two “pottery moulds for
bottoms of vessels” (loc. cit. p. 439). Mrs. Stevenson also noticed
these olla bottoms at Zuñi (1904, p. 374).
[19] Harrington writes: “Variously shaped section of gourd are used by
women to smooth and shape pottery in the making” (1916, a, p. 102).
Stevenson, in 1879, noted at Zuñi “a small trowel fashioned from a
piece of gourd or fragment of pottery, the only tool employed in the
manufacture of pottery” (1883, p. 329). Mrs. Stevenson also speaks of
these trowels (1904, p. 374).
[20] Stevenson, in speaking of the making of pottery at Santa Clara,
mentions “the process of polishing--with smooth, fine-grained stones”,
(1883, p. 331). In his catalogue of stone objects collected at Zuñi
in 1881, he differentiates between “small stones used in polishing
pottery”, “small stones used in polishing unburned vessels”, and the
“small polisher for glazing and smoothing pottery”, giving three
different Indian names for the three kinds. He does not, however,
explain the difference (1884, pp. 525, 526). He also catalogues
“fifteen rubbing or smoothing stones for pottery” obtained at Walpi
(1884, p. 587). Mrs. Stevenson remarked: “Polishing stones are used to
finish the surface” of vessels at Zuñi (1904, p. 375).
[21] Stevenson, in 1879 at Zuñi, noted that the paint was applied to
pottery “with brushes made of the leaves of the yucca. These brushes
are made of flat pieces of the leaf, which are stripped off and bruised
at one end, and are of different sizes adapted to the coarse or fine
lines the artist may wish to draw” (1883, p. 330). Mrs. Stevenson
wrote, again of Zuñi: “_Yucca glauca_ Nutt. Soapweed.... The brushes
employed for decorating pottery are made from the leaves of this plant,
which, for this purpose, are cut the proper lengths and fringed at one
end” (1915, p. 82).
[22] Mrs. Stevenson says the Zuñis used a “rabbit skin mop” (1904, p.
375).
[23] Mrs. Stevenson wrote of Zuñi: “The pieces to be fired are placed
upon stones to raise them a few inches from the ground”, implying the
absence of a grate (1904, p. 376).
[24] I use the words “very skillfully” advisedly. Repeated attempts
on my part to imitate the process resulted in rolls of exceedingly
variable diameter. At Zuñi the roll is made by the apparently simpler
and more efficient method of rolling the clay back and forth on a flat
stone slab with one hand (see pl. 29, a).
[25] Zuñi potters apply the roll to the outside instead of the inside
of the growing vessel wall; otherwise the handling of the roll is
exactly as at San Ildefonso (see pl. 29, b).
[26] Throughout this report, the puki is spoken of as moving
“clockwise” or “counterclockwise” and the sectors worked in are
referred to the numerals on the face of the clock, as, “the
six-to-eight-o’clock sector”. The point of view taken is that of the
potter with “six o’clock” referring to that part of the bowl nearest
her.
[27] The “rim” of an unfinished vessel means the upper edge of the last
roll added to it.
[28] See, however, pl. 29. b; the Zuñi potter in this case has not
obliterated the preceding rolls.
[29] Stevenson, 1883, p. 331.
[30] M. C. Stevenson, 1904, p. 375.
[31] Binns, 1910, pp. 69-71.
[32] The process is identical at Zuñi, see pl. 30, a.
[33] From the earliest periods Southwestern pottery has been made in
more or less the manner just described, that is, by the addition of
successive rings of clay. During prehistoric times, however, there
was developed a ware usually known as “corrugated”, in the building
of which the roll was so lengthened as to become a spiral coil. The
roll of paste forming the coil was very thin, averaging a little
over one-quarter of an inch in diameter; and it was applied to the
outside of the temporary rim, as at Zuñi (see pl. 29, b), instead
of to the inside, as at San Ildefonso. Furthermore, the junctions
between the coils were not obliterated on the exterior of the vessel,
thus producing a ridged or corrugated effect. Corrugated pottery was
principally used for cooking pots (see Holmes, 1886, p. 273).
[34] One informant stated that these bowls, both with and without the
terraces, were formerly, and are still, used to hold sacred meal.
[35] The two-mouthed vase is rarely made at San Ildefonso. It is a type
more commonly produced by the potters of Santa Clara.
[36] Potsherds from pre-Spanish ruins show that handles have been
applied to vessels in the ways described above for many centuries. The
lug-type of handle, which is frequently found in ancient pottery, is
no longer made at San Ildefonso. The probabilities are, however, that
these lugs were welded to the exterior of the vessel, as in the first
method described, rather than riveted on as in the second method.
[37] The potter placed the responsibility for this crack upon a kitten
which had jumped into the olla during the night. In the animal’s
attempt to climb out, the vessel suffered some rather severe bumps. The
story of the kitten’s adventure was told before the crack was noticed.
Later it was used to explain the presence of the imperfection.
[38] The expression “get warm” comes from the fact that while the
vessel is damp the evaporating moisture causes it to feel cool; when
thoroughly dry it feels warm.
[39] The red slips are not used today in the designs, although some of
the older vessels contain red elements which appear to have been made
of the dark-red slip.
[40] Stevenson says of the Zuñi: “This solution (of a fine white
calcareous earth) is applied to the surface of the vessel and allowed
to dry; it is then ready for the decorations” (1883, pp. 329, 330).
Mrs. Stevenson, writing at a later date, gives more details: “A white
clay is dissolved in water and then made into cones which are dried
in the sun. When required for use these cones are rubbed to powder on
a stone, again mixed with water, and applied in a liquid state to the
object with a rabbit-skin mop. Polishing-stones are used to finish the
surface” (1904, p. 375).
[41] At Santa Clara and San Juan some polished ware is polished only
from the rim to the shoulder and the lower half is apparently unslipped.
[42] Stevenson in speaking of the polished black pottery of the Rio
Grande pueblos says: “A solution of very fine ochre-colored clay is
applied to the outside and inside near the top, or to such parts of
the surface as are to be polished. While this solution thus applied is
still moist, the process of polishing begins by rubbing the part thus
washed with smooth, fine-grained stones until quite dry and glossy. The
parts thus rubbed still retain the original red color of the clay. The
vessels are again placed in the sun and allowed to become thoroughly
dry, when they are ready for baking” (1883, p. 331). Mrs. Stevenson
also gives an account somewhat similar: “In many of the pueblos the
pottery is undecorated, the surface being finished in plain red or
black. The ware is made of a yellowish clay, in the manner heretofore
described, and the vessels are placed in the sun, where they remain for
hours. They are then washed with a solution of red ochre, and while wet
the process of polishing begins, the woman with untiring energy going
over the surface again and again with her polishing-stone, every little
while passing a wet cloth over the vessel to keep the surface moist.
When the polishing is completed, the vessel is again placed in the sun
for a short time before receiving its final baking in the oven” (1904,
p. 375.)
[43] This second potter, however, did use lard in polishing vessels to
which the red slip had been applied.
[44] The substitution of the chamois for a cloth was inaugurated by the
potter using it.
[45] The use of this paint for producing designs upon polished black
ware was discovered by Maria Martinez in June, 1921. On inquiring why
other potters did not copy the process, it was learned that because of
certain taboo-like restrictions the secret of making this kind of ware
would not be disclosed until a year after its discovery. Although the
matter could not be further investigated because of the unwillingness
of the Indians to discuss such things, it would appear that we have in
this case a sort of primitive patent-right. At the present time (1925)
practically all San Ildefonso potters make this ware, which has proved
extraordinarily popular; Maria, however, still produces by far the
finest pieces (see pl. 8, a).
[46] Occasionally such precautions are disregarded, apparently through
laziness. One potter did her painting in the same room in which some
meat was being cooked. The combined odors of the cooking meat and the
guaco attracted all the flies in the neighborhood, but fortunately
screens kept some of them out of the room.
[47] Stevenson gives no details of the painting at Zuñi; “When the
pigment is properly reduced, and mixed with water so as to form a
thin solution, it is applied with brushes made of the leaves of the
yucca. These brushes are made of flat pieces of the leaf, which are
stripped off and bruised at one end, and are of different sizes
adapted to the coarse or fine lines the artist may wish to draw. In
this manner all the decorations on the pottery are produced” (1883,
p. 330). Mrs. Stevenson is just as brief: “After a thorough drying of
this foundation, the slip, the designs are painted with brushes made
of yucca needles, the pigments having been ground in stone mortars and
made into a paste with water to which a syrup of yucca fruit is added”
(1904, p. 375). The stone mortar for pigment grinding may be seen in
pl. 31, a.
[48] On pp. 78 to 84 will be found notes on the actual painting of
several typical designs.
[49] One woman tried her best to teach me how to tell these shades
apart, but it proved utterly impossible for me to distinguish the
darker from the lighter.
[50] This variant in polished black ware is a new departure. It was
discovered, probably accidentally, by one of the San Ildefonso potters
early in the summer of 1921. The process by which the red blotch is
made has not as yet been brought completely under control.
[51] It is interesting to note that in making the preliminary pencil
draft, she uses entirely different strokes from those made by the brush.
[52] The subject of symbolism is touched upon in this report only with
the greatest diffidence. No two students of Southwestern ceramics seem
to entertain the same theory, in all details, upon this subject. The
statements made here are given for what they may be worth. The time
devoted to the work did not permit of a careful and exhaustive study of
the subject.
[53] One potter, after glancing at a small vessel which was undoubtedly
old, informed the writer that it had once belonged to the “summer
people”, a social-religious division of the community.
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