Grace Navasie
Parrot Olla
11 1/2"
H x 10 1/4" D
This beautiful "white-ware"
pottery is the creation of Grace Navasie, the daughter of Joy
Navasie (Frog Woman). The Navasie family is one of the premier Hopi pottery
families, and has produced a legacy of potters stemming from
the oringal Frog Woman - Paqua.
Joy Navasie has been credited
with the development of the white slip pottery style, and as
a result, her children have remained faithful.
This is one of the most
beautiful examples of a perfect slip job, with traditional polychrome
designs.
Grace explained to me that
many traditional Hopi motifs include parrot and parrot feather
symbols, but many overlook them or mistake them for "rainbird"
designs, or even eagle patterns.
The beautiful colors are a
result of all natural pigments such as the "bee-weed"
and hematite mineral. Amazingly, these pigments are still gathered
from areas around First Mesa (where pottery originated among
the Hopi, and remains alive today).
The processing of these pigments
is all done by hand with traditional tools, such as the matate
stone, similar to the ones used for early Hopi corn grinding,
to process the hematite and "Bee-weed." Then the details
are all added meticulously with the delicate strands of the yucca
reed, which has been split into several fine strands, to be used
as a brush.
Grace has been lives at the
lower village of Polacca, at First Mesa and continues to adhere
to the traditional styles the her mother introduced. She can
be found featured in several works on the Hopi, including Rick
Dillingham's book Fourteen Families in Pueblo Pottery,
67 ; and in Lillian Peasser’s book Pueblo Pottery Families,
41.
