Santa Clara Pueblo High Polish Blackware Pottery Melon Jar By Clara Suazo

ca. 1970

3.5" H x 4.25" D

Hand Coiled Blackware with a High Polish and Signed Clara Suazo Santa Clara an Active Potter from 1935 

In Very Good Condition

Clara C. Suazo (1913–1997) was a Santa Clara Pueblo potter active from around the 1930s onward. She is known for hand-coiled and polished blackware. She raised nine children, including noted potter Ron Suazo. Her work follows the classic Santa Clara tradition of highly burnished black pottery achieved through reduction firing (smothering the fire to create the deep black color while preserving the polish).

Santa Clara Pueblo is famous for its glossy black-on-black (and red) pottery, often featuring carved, incised, or ribbed "melon" styles. These melon jars have vertical or curved grooves resembling a melon or squash, created by pinching or carving the wet clay before polishing and firing.