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Pottery Definitions

 

Anasazi – Native American Indians who lived in the area now known generally as the Four Corner’s Region including Northeastern New Mexico, Southern Colorado, Southwestern Utah and Northwestern Arizona between 1and 1300 AD. The designs on potsherds found in the Anasazi ruins are incorporated in current Pueblo pottery designs. The Anasazi are the ancestors of the modern Pueblo people.

Avanyu –Generally represented horned and feathered, Avanyu is the protector of water, including rain, rivers and streams. Depictions of Avanyu are found throughout the Southwest Pueblos and other Tribes throughout the Americas. The Avanyu is often depicted on pottery from the Santa Clara Pueblo.

Base – The bottom of the pottery piece.

Black on Black – The method by which the potter paints a design with slip (typically white) on a stone polished pot prior to firing. During the firing process the potter smothers the fire with powdered horse manure and the slip changes color to a slightly lighter shade of matte black that contrasts with the polished black surface.

Bowls – A short pot that has a large opening at the top that is wider than the base. Sometimes referred to as Chili Bowls in Southwest pottery.

Carving – The process of cutting deep designs in the clay prior to firing.

Ceramic – Slip that has been poured into a mold to make a pot.

Ceremonial Break – Also known as the Spirit Path, this is the break in a painted line that encircles a pot. Most noted are the ceremonial breaks painted around the opening of pots.

Clay Pit – A place where the appropriate type of pottery-making clay is dug.

Coiled - The method of making pottery without a wheel. The clay is rolled into snake-like ribbons, which are then placed around the pot to build its walls. Each strip is pinched onto the one below it, and the seam is usually smoothed out.

Corrugated – The process of puncturing the clay with a tool to create a design. Traditionally the tool is found in nature and calls to the potter, such as a twig from a Pinion Tree.

Etched – The process of scratching out pieces of clay with a tool to make designs prior to firing.

Excise – The process of deeply cutting the clay to make designs prior to firing.

Fine Line – A pattern of many straight lines painted perpendicular to one another that represent rain. This is particularly important to potters since many have clay pits that can only be worked after a rain. Also spelled Fineline.

Firing - A process of exposing pottery to high heat that makes them hard and strong.

Glaze - A mineral used to coat pottery, which melts and becomes shiny and hard when the pot is fired.

Gourd - A squash that has a hard outer skin. They are cut, dried and cleaned to make clay scrapers, bowls and dippers. When dried whole they are made into Gourd Rattles for dances, musical instruments and used in ceremonies.

Greenware – Slip that has been poured into a mold to create a pot.

Handcoiled – a piece of pottery made with the coiling technique. See coiling.

Jars – A pot with a small opening.

Kiva – 1) An underground sacred ceremonial room used in Southwest Pueblo tribes. Generally round in shape. 2) Indoor and outdoor fireplaces shaped like beehives made of wood and abode plaster.

Kiva Steps – In Southwest art the Kiva Steps represent the sacred. Also known as Healing Steps, this pattern is often used to decorate pottery.

Lightening Bolt – A symbol representing power from God.

Lip – The area around the opening of a pottery piece.

Mimbres – Early Native American Indians who lived in the area now known as Southwest New Mexico and Southeast Arizona prior to the 1500’s. They were known for their pottery making. Designs from potsherds found in the Mimbres ruins have been incorporated into modern pottery.

Micaceous Clay – Clay that has mica in it. It’s naturally occurring in many areas of New Mexico, most noted is the Taos Pueblo. Pots made from Micaceous clay gives the piece a glittery look.

Miniatures – A tiny replica of a full sized pottery piece. The more detail and finer the work the higher the value it carries.

Monochrome – One color.

Olla - A large pot over 15 inches tall with a wide body and narrower neck, often used for carrying or storing water; sometimes they could hold as much as two gallons.

Opening – The opening in the top of the pottery piece.

Oral tradition - Information or knowledge passed from person to person by word-of-mouth. Prior to the Spanish settlers, the Pueblo people only used oral tradition to pass down their cultural information, including pottery making. Now both oral and written traditions are utilized in most Pueblos, however some information considered too sacred to be written, must be passed along only by oral traditions.

Polishing stone - A very smooth, rounded stone generally from a riverbed used for polishing a piece of pottery. Polishing stones are highly prized and are traditionally passed down in families from one potter to the next.

Polychrome – Having more than one color.

Pots – Any pottery piece that can be used to store and carry objects.

Pot Shard - - A piece of broken pottery. Also known as a Pot Sherd.

Pot Sherd - A piece of broken pottery. Also known as a Pot Shard and also spelled potsherd.

Pigments – Natural paints made from minerals and plants.

Pueblo - The Spanish word for village. There are presently 19 Native American Indian Pueblos in New Mexico, plus the Hopis in Arizona and Isleta del Sur outside of El Paso, Texas. Although the Navajo Nation is not considered a Pueblo, thier pottery is often included in Pueblo Pottery publications.

Puki – The Tewa word for dish. A potter will build her pot on a Puki, which allows the wet pottery piece to be moved without sticking to the table. Pukis can be the bottom of a broken pot or are specifically made for the particular sizes and shapes of pottery pieces they make.

Seedpot – A hollow pottery piece that has a very small opening at the top. Traditionally, the Pueblo people would safely store newly dried seeds inside of seedpots to protect them from insects, rodents and other pests until the next planting season. The opening is small so the pot could be effectively sealed by placing a small stone or pebble over it and sealed with pitch or resin. Also spelled as Seed Pot.

Slip - Clay that has been thinned with water to the consistency of paint or yogurt.

Stone Polished – Burnished. The process of rubbing a polishing stone on clay until the clay becomes smooth with a glossy sheen. Stone polishing is done prior to firing.

Storytellers – Oral tradition depicted in clay figurines. Generally the mother or Mother Spirit is the storyteller and she will hold many children. Other common storytellers are the Koshari Clown, Horse, Coyote and a more recent addition is the Santa Clause.

Thin Walled – This term denotes the thinness of the pot’s sides or walls. Constructing a handcoiled pot with thin walls takes more skill and thus has greater value. Thin walled pots make a very bright pinging sound when thumped with the finger.

Vase – A pot that has a narrow neck or a narrow base.

Walls – The sides of a pot and generally used when referring to the thinness of the clay in a pot’s construction.

Wedding Vase – A single pottery vase with two necks joined at the top with a handle. Traditionally, the wedding vase would be filled with water blessed by a Medicine Man or Priest and drank by the couple during the wedding ceremony.

Yucca Brush – The Yucca is a desert plant in the Agave family. Pueblo Native Americans cut the leaves then chew them into small brushes to use as paintbrushes to apply pigment to pottery.

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