Stone Polished Red Melon-ribbed Jar by Helen Shupla

If Helen Shupla left her mark, it was due to her masterful creation of jars with melon ribs. She developed a technique of pushing the melon ribs outward from the inside while she was building the jar with coils of clay. She produced jars in all black, all red, and all tan. The entire surface of the vessel was then stone polished.

It is signed as Helen Shupla Santa Clara Pueblo 1-20-81. For those who want to know the number of ribs on a melon jar, this one has 18. The jar was stone polished from top to bottom, including the depressions between the ribs.

Helen Shupla was of Santa Clara Pueblo and Tohono O'odham tribal heritage. She was active as a potter from around the mid-1940s until her death in 1985. Her husband, Kenneth Shupla, was a Hopi katsina doll carver who moved to Santa Clara when he married. In pueblo culture, it is traditional for the husband to move to the wife's village. Their daughter married Alton Komalestewa, also a Hopi. He was mentored as a potter by Helen Shupla and began making melon jars of her pottery style.

Condition: this Stone Polished Red Melon-ribbed Jar by Helen Shupla is in very good condition.

Provenance: Previously from the estate of Santa Fe dealer and collector Martha (Marti) Struever who passed away in August 2017. Most recently from the estate of a Santa Fe resident who purchased this jar from Adobe Gallery.

Recommended Reading:  Talking with the Clay: The Art of Pueblo Pottery by Stephen Trimble, 1987

TAGS: Southwest Indian Pottery, Santa Clara Pueblo, Tohono O'odham (Papago), Alton Komalestewa, Hopi Pueblo, Helen Shupla