The making of a Nativity set
is something new for Lucy. The figurines are all hand coiled
and sculpted of native gathered and home refined clays. She has
been asked many times over the years to produce them but resisted
until recently. They are quite hard and time consuming to create
and difficult to keep from cracking in the drying and firing.
The little air vent holes in them are to keep them from cracking
while drying or blowing up when firing. They are all hand coiled
up and sculpted as they are built, slowly dried under sheets,
then they are sanded, stone polished, and painted with various
colors of clay slips that are also stone polished on, and finally
the black designs are painted on with paint made of bee plant
juice and hematite rock ground on a grinding stone. After all
this work is done it is put at risk by being fired outside with
juniper wood and sheep manure to a temperature of about 1800-1900
degrees f. They were all coiled from marbleized clay that was
made by mixing two colors of clay together as the wet clay was
beaten just before being coiled. It took Lucy a long time to
figure out what clays can be mixed together without cracking
and how to stone polish them without smearing the colors together.
They are made to be used as
both a Nativity at Christmas time or just be various members
of a Navajo family the rest of the year, that is if you hide
the angle's wings or face the wings so the back side is not showing.
The faces of the human figurines have masks of the Holy People,
traditional Navajo hair tied back in a bun, and they all wear
real turquoise jewelry, the sheep and the goat ram have turquoise
collars.
DETAILS:
Joseph or the tallest figurine
measures at 13"h x 6"w. He carries a staff made of
a corkscrew willow twig and he wears a fancy blanket with and
very elaborate Navajo rug design.
Mary or the female figure
is carrying a Navajo style cradleboard with the baby Jesus or
baby in it. She wears a traditional type of a woven Navajo dress
with a sash belt. Also her blanket has a traditional Navajo rug
design that Lucy calls rain laden clouds. She is 12 1/8"
h x 6"w in measurement.
The shepherd holding the lamb
measures at 10 ¼"h x 5"w. His blanket is designed
with rainbows and clouds. He has a very ornately designed sash
belt and the bottom of his robe has and ancient pottery design
Lucy calls the zig`zag clouds. Even the lamb has a turquoise
collar.
The angel drummer carries
a traditional Navajo pottery drum that is beat on with a curved
drum stick. He wears a stiped blanket shawl that could be a traditional
Navajo blanket or a Jewish prayer shawl. His wings are shaped
in stair-step cloud designs with a triangular design in back.
He has and intricately designed cloud and lightening designed
sash and a robe also with zig-zag lightening designs on the bottom.
He measures 11" h x 5 ¾ " w.
The goat ram and the sheep
are painted with abstract designs of various clouds as rain and
moisture are necessary for the grass and plants the sheep graze
on. They even wear collars of sacred stones. The sheep measures
6 ¾" L x 4" h x 2 ½" w and the goat
ram are 6" L x 4 3/8" h x 2" w.
This is an unusually large
and eloquently designed, stone polished and painted group of
sculptured pieces that took much effort, time, risk, and experience
to accomplish.
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