Much has been written about and much conjecture has taken place concerning Coronado’s path through Northern Sonora and Southern Arizona. I will now attempt to spell out my ideas on this route through several installments on this blog. Many scholars that have undertaken to trace Coronado’s route have the advantages of an understanding of medieval Spanish, or of the culture and ways of the people living in New Spain at that time. But I have the advantage of being able to read the works of many of these scholars and another advantage that most of them don’t have, something as difficult to acquire as a degree in cultural anthropology or medieval languages, I have an intimate understanding of the land. Read the rest of this entry »
The Chichilticalli Trail Part I – An Overview
June 24th, 2009The Enigma of Mata Ortiz
November 17th, 2005First of all let me say that I have the utmost respect for Juan Quezada and the rest of my fellow traditional potters down in Mata Ortiz. What really baffles me is the sheer amount of public interest in their work as compared to that of the Pueblo Indians Read the rest of this entry »
POTTERY WITHOUT PUKIS?
December 13th, 2004It seems like all potters working in the traditions of the ancient Southwestern cultures employ pukis or something like them in their pottery making. Even the Mexicans of Mata Ortiz in their technologies which are seemingly unconnected to the ancient Indian potters use pukis.
(Puki, n : a shallow vessel used to shape a pottery vessel)
Yet a puki can be very limiting, you are limited to the size and shape of bowls you already have, and the number of pots made at one time is limited by the number of pukis available. Certainly the prehistoric potters of this area did not always use pukis, Read the rest of this entry »
BENTONITE?
November 22nd, 2004The hunt for the white Saladoan slip continues…
Last Saturday I hiked over 9 miles, a good deal of the way with a pack full of clay, to get what I suspect to be Bentonite clay from the Sacaton Wash area of the San Pedro Valley. I have used this clay before years ago, so I know what it’s like, but now I’m going to see how it performs with vegetal paint.
While I was out there, I climbed a small unnamed hill to look around and found a prehistoric shrine, Read the rest of this entry »
ONE STEP CLOSER TO SOLVING THE MYSTERY
November 19th, 2004My hunch was correct, the clay from Sacaton Wash does hold onto the vegetal paint to produce black designs from my Mesquite bean syrup. I presume that means it is Bentonite, although where that much volcanic ash would come from in this area is anybodys guess. Unfortunately the clay fires to a light yellow color, not even close to the right color for Salado Polychromes. Read the rest of this entry »
SOME THOUGHTS ON “CERAMICS AND IDEOLOGY: SALADO POLYCHROME POTTERY”
November 19th, 2004I went down to the Arizona State Museum library last Wednesday and did some research. I looked at Ceramics and Ideology: Salado Polychrome Pottery by Patricia L. Crown she writes allot about the red slip but pretty much completely ignores the biggest issue of all which is the white slip. There is absolutely nothing unique about the red slip on Salado pottery, the white however is entirely unique Read the rest of this entry »
THE MYSTERY OF THE DESERT
November 12th, 2004You probably thought the mystery of the desert was “The Thing” along I-10 between Wilcox and Benson, but you would be wrong. The real mystery of the desert is “what in the heck did the Salado use for a white slip on Pinto, Gila and Tonto polychrome”?
Most of the stuff you read (POTTERY AND PIGMENTS IN ARIZONA: SALADO POLYCHROME) says that it was a kaolin type clay, but I doubt the people that write these things have ever attempted to duplicate Salado pottery. Read the rest of this entry »
Traditional Potter’s Manifesto
November 10th, 2004In my opinion there is way too much modern in most traditional southwestern pottery, the key word here is “traditional”. Modern technology in pottery is fine but if that is what you are doing, why make pretensions of being traditional, unless perhaps you are just using tradition to sell your artwork. Southwest pottery is beautiful to look at for sure, but there is another beauty there as well, a poetic beauty. There are two points in which it is poetically beautiful. Read the rest of this entry »
DEFINING “TRADITIONAL” SOUTHWEST POTTERY
October 22nd, 2004I’ve been reading The Many Faces of Mata Ortiz, (a very good book that I would highly recommend) and at the same time working on several new pots. Which has got me thinking about what is traditional southwestern pottery and where it crosses the line and just becomes pottery. Read the rest of this entry »
CORONADO’S CURIOUS TRAIL
October 12th, 2004I ran a lot of different scenerios this weekend and just frustrating because nothing really fits perfectly.
There are three places where in the area where mountain ranges appear to “turn west” and must be crossed over to get to the level land on the other side as it is said the Coronado expedition did. The junction of the Rincons and Catalinas and Reddington Pass, the junction of the Chiricauas and Dos Cabazas at Apache Pass and the Pinalenos and Santa Teresas at Eagle Pass. Read the rest of this entry »
