Adobe Gallery: Southwest Indian Pottery

The New Mexico Pueblo potter possesses an innate talent in the fine and applied arts. She is a born artist, possessing a capacity for discipline and careful work, and a fine sense of line and rhythm. Some of these jars were made for use at the pueblos in the daily lives of the households and some were made for sale to tourists and collectors. Regardless of intent, the artistic treatment was the same. These vessels are true expressions of potters’ artistic talents. Potters draw their spiritual sustenance from their tribal life, and that life is all a design, whether a ceremonial dance or ramifications of daily life. The designs applied to their pottery are influenced by life at the pueblo. These pottery vessels are testimony to their talents even if their identity remains a mystery.

To learn more about Pueblo Pottery, click here to check out our Reference Library on this subject.

Below are brief articles to help you learn more about collecting Pueblo Indian Pottery. Click on each title to learn more (this will also take you to another website):
Women Artist Pioneers of New Mexico.
Glossary of Ceramics and Clay Terms.
American Indian Signs and Symbols.
Collecting Indian Pottery.
Glossary of Indian Arts Terms.
Glossary of Pueblo Pottery Terms.
How Pueblo Pottery is Made.
Pottery: Enduring Styles of the Pueblos.
What Does this Indian Symbol Mean?