Paipai indian pottery

For over a thousand years, indigenous people of Baja California, Arizona and Southern California made earthen pottery for ceremonial purposes as well as cooking, storage and processing of native foods. Today only a handful of talented Native Baja Californians keep this ancient tradition alive. Potters gather clods of raw clay and grind them in a metate (grinding stone); the resulting fine dust is mixed with water and kneaded. Coil by coil, potters build up the side of the pot using only their muscular hands, a wooden paddle and clay anvil. Finally it is burnished with a smooth stone and fired with dried yucca stalks in a shallow pit. Although pots are occasionally decorated with paint or incising, it is the simple elegance of their shapes combined with fire clouding and the glitter of mica which give them their unique beauty.

IMPORTANT: Please remember that these unique artworks are individually made.

All sizes, shapes and colors are approximate and will vary from piece to piece.

Please leave three to four weeks for delivery. For rush delivery, please contact us by email.