Adobe Gallery Blog
Very Large Ohkay Owingeh ( San Juan) Pueblo Black over Gray Storage Jar - C3215A
Category: Pottery | Posted by | Wed, Nov 23rd 2016, 1:44pm
The pre-1900s vessels from Ohkay Owingeh were not as highly polished as today's blackware from the other Tewa pueblos, but the lack of severe polishing provided slight irregularities in the surface of a vessel from which the reflected light is pleasantly muted. Most vessels were slipped with a deep red slip on the upper 2/3rd of the body, leaving the lower 1/3rd without slip. The entire vessel was then polished, inside and out, to a hard finish. The red-over-tan finished product was then fired-either in an oxidizing or reduction firing-from which would be obtained a red-over-tan or black-over gray finished product.