Hopi Shallow Bowl with Interior Design [SOLD]

Helen Naha (Feather Woman) and Joy Navasie (Frog Woman) were sisters-in-law.  Helen Naha married Joy Navasie's brother, Archie Naha. Helen was known for her stark black-on-white Hopi pottery early in her career and for exquisite polychrome pots in later times. Her hallmark is a feather.

This wonderful wide and low bowl is slipped in traditional white clay, over which is painted the decoration in strong black natural pigment.  The design is a mixture of shapes—a star in the center surrounded by circles, one of which contains Greek Key-style designs.  Beyond the circles are triangles with spirals, triangles with cross hatching, and black parallelograms.  The exterior rim has a band of cloud symbols interspersed with black dots.  The bowl is signed with the potter’s traditional feather design.  This bowl dates to the late 1970s.

Helen Naha was the first to use the Feather Woman name.  She was Spider Clan and the mother of Burel, Rainy, and Sylvia, all three of whom became potters of note.  She not only left a legacy of her own pottery but three family members to carry on the name and craft.

Condition: excellent original condition

Recommended Reading: Hopi-Tewa Pottery 500 Artist Biographies by Gregory Schaaf.  This book is currently not available from Adobe Gallery

Provenance: from a gentleman from Colorado who purchased it when living in Albuquerque in the 1970s.