The 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, (more…)
My 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. (more…)
I 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 a lot about the red slip but 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. (more…)
You 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. (more…)
In 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. (more…)
