Navajo Pottery:Michelle Williams American Indian Pot

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Navajo Pottery:Michelle Williams American Indian Pot

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Sold Date: 03/19/2008
Channel: Online Auction
Source: eBay
Category: Ethnic, Folk & Native American Art

Beautiful polished redware pottery vase by well known Navajo artist Michelle Williams, 4 1/2" tall with a 5 1/4" diameter. Signed "Michelle Williams" and "Navajo" on the bottom. The opening price is well below wholesale price for this vase.

The pot is thin-walled, well proportioned and perfectly symmetrical with a highly polished surface. It possesses a beautiful color variation ranging from red to orange to brown to black tones. An appliqued decorative fillet, called a "biyo' " in the Navajo language, circles the pot just below the mouth. Within the biyu is the traditional ceremonial break known as the "atiin", or way out. The ceremonial break is left in the design to prevent Michelle's creative energies form being trapped in the pot, thus preventing her from making additional pottery. The vase is in perfect condition with no imperfections of any kind.

Michelle Williams was taught pottery by her world renowned mother, Alice Williams Cling. Alice in turn learned pottery from her mother, Rose Williams, who is recognized as the matriarch of modern Navajo pottery. Michelle's pieces are entirely hand-made, from digging and preparing the clay to hand constructing the pot, and finally to firing it in a wood fire. Each piece is then coated with a thin veneer of melted pine pitch, enhancing the color variations that result naturally from the firing. This vase measures 4 1/2" high with a diameter of 5 1/4". I have been collecting pottery from the Williams family since the 1980s and purchased this piece directly from Michelle last year at her home in Shonto, Arizona.