The Philosophy and Craft of Navajo Pottery

A     The Navajo, the largest indigenous tribe in the United States, call the American Southwest home, and especially in the Northeast corner of Arizona. A cold semi-arid region under the Köppen climate classification system, this region sees drastic temperatures swings throughout the year, often fluctuating around 15 degrees Celsius in a single day in the summers. Throughout the year, punishing winds blow through the canyons and across the plains. The concomitant erosion from the wind and strong summer rains have at times made crop yields scarce, but these conditions have also created rich deposits of clay that Navajo potters use.

B     Navajo pottery has functioned as a carrier of history and a tool for teaching lessons. Oral history tells of how the Navajo originally came from the earth and how the first man and woman manipulated clay to fashion tools. The very physical act of creating pottery holds deep spiritual significance, with each step representing a certain lesson. The discovery and preparation of clay to be used for creating pottery are viewed as acts of self-discovery and self-development. When working with the prepared clay, care must be taken to prevent it from becoming too wet or too dry. This balancing act at the hands of the artist symbolically represents the balance necessary for life in general. Baking the piece, the final step in the process, physically represents a figurative test: a trial of a person's mettle and virtue.

C     There are three styles of pots that are created by the Navajo. The first is referred to as a “pinch pot.” A pinch pot is made by first creating a smooth spherical piece of clay the size of a baseball. Once this shape is created, the forefinger and thumb are used to pinch the clay, hollowing the middle and creating walls. Potters must take special care to prevent the clay from drying out; the artisans dipping their hands in water as necessary throughout the process. The potter’s hands are dipped into water as needed throughout the process. It is vital to balance the amount of water used, as too much will cause the clay to become weak and lead to uneven walls which may in turn cause the pot to fall apart. Once the pot is shaped and dried, designs can be etched into the outside of the pot before baking. After this hardening process, the final stage is covering the pot with a thin layer of a tree-sap sealant called piñon pitch, which creates the unique look and smell of Navajo pottery.

D     To create a “coil pot,” the second style of Navajo pottery, several pieces of clay are rolled gently into coils of around one inch in thickness. The coils are placed on top of each other starting from the circular base, thus resulting in a round shape. Each coil is meticulously joined to the coils in contact with it; this is achieved through smoothing that the potter does with their thumb. Depending on the potter’s personal preferences, either the inside, outside, or both may be smooth. When the outside of a coil pot is smooth, its appearance is identical to a pinch pot’s. Like a pinch pot, after a coil pot has been set to dry, it can be decorated with designs before being baked. Greater care must be taken when creating coil pots, as poorly joined coils can lead to fragmentation during drying and baking.

E     The third and final type of pot is known as the “slab pot.” This pot is created using two sticks that act as a rolling pin, flattening out the clay to an even thickness of about 1/2 an inch. This flat piece of clay is used to create the base of the pot by placing any object of the desired shape above it and cutting around the clay, after which walls are added. In this way, this method is versatile, allowing potters a great amount of freedom as they create their work.

F     Contemporary Navajo potters, trained in the time-tested techniques, have found ingenious ways of innovating on and contributing to this artistic tradition. These artisans have begun to incorporate turquoise and other stones into the customarily muted designs, which have been added partly in response to tourist demand. What began with a simple aesthetic interest has been quietly growing into national and even international awareness of Navajo pottery. While responding to this demand may seem like an unwelcome aberration to the craft’s history, the growing market for these works provides artisans with the resources they need to continue this storied tradition. Ultimately, the Navajo artisans will be the ones who shape the still-unfolding history of this art form as they mould each pot.