Hopi Pottery by Sylvia Naha (1951-1999)

2.75" x 5.5"

A low form seed jar with dense black on white ship star and swirl motif. 

From a Private Colorado Collection

In Very Good Condition

Sylvia Naha (also known as Sylvia Naha Humphrey (1951–1999) was a noted Hopi-Tewa (Hopi Pueblo) potter from the Spider Clan on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona. She came from a distinguished multi-generational family of potters with Her Granddaughter of Paqua Naha (the first “Frog Woman”), a pioneering Hopi-Tewa potter known for white-slipped work. Daughter of Helen Naha (the first “Feather Woman,” 1922–1993), who refined white-slipped Hopi pottery techniques in the early 1950s using local clays that resisted cracking during firing. Sister of potters Rainy Naha and Burel Naha (sometimes called “Spider Man”). Sylvia learned traditional hand-coiling, polishing, painting, and outdoor firing (often with sheep dung) by watching and assisting her mother and grandmother. She specialized in whiteware (white-slipped pottery polished and painted with bee-weed/black and native colored slips).