Adobe Gallery Blog

Several weeks ago Robert Tenorio, a well known potter of Kewa Pueblo (Santo Domingo), paid us a visit here at Adobe Gallery as he does from time to time. On this particular occasion, however, Tenorio came bearing a once in a lifetime gift only offered to a small number of people outside the pueblos.

He pulled, from a grocery size paper bag, several plastic containers full of various colors of clay slips, yucca brushes that had been chewed at the tip, and four pre-fired pottery items. One large water jar that he (Robert Tenorio) was working on and three smaller bowl shaped vessels. He laid all four pottery items on the counter around Al's desk and began painting his pot.

"Well..." he said, as the three of us stood there in awe of what we were witnessing. "Paint!" Al and Todd were being offered the opportunity to paint their own bowls made by Robert Tenorio himself! Al immediately painted a flower as if he had decided long ago what he would do if he had ever been given the opportunity. Todd took a little more time to think about what to paint. (Comment about what design you would have painted!)

Robert Tenorio took the four pots home, fired them, and returned them to us the following week. He gave them to us as gifts. Robert told us to pat egg whites around the bowls something, at first, that we didn't understand, but, after seeing them, it left the bowls with a shiny coat almost as if they had patina; the egg whites may also serve a protective purpose.

Pictures of the process and finished product have been posted in our Facebook photo gallery if you have an interest to take a look.

It was an incredible experience that we are humbled and excited to have partaken in.

We were curious, too, if you knew of another reason for coating the bowls in egg whites we are interested in your thoughts.