Native American Pottery Shard

 The pictures are a representation of the size and quality of material you'll receive. Each piece is randomly selected for every order and the price is for one bag of pottery.

Native American pottery-making is an ancient and highly skilled craft that varies significantly among different tribes and regions. However, the process generally involves several key steps:

Materials and Preparation

1. **Clay Collection**: Potters would collect natural clay from local deposits. The clay often needed to be purified by removing stones, roots, and other impurities.

2. **Tempering**: To prevent cracking during drying and firing, materials like sand, crushed shell, or ground-up pottery (grog) were mixed into the clay.

Forming Techniques

1. **Coiling**: One of the most common methods involved rolling the clay into long coils and then stacking and smoothing them to build up the walls of the vessel.

2. **Pinching**: Another technique involved pinching and shaping the clay by hand, starting from a ball of clay and creating a hollow form by pinching the walls outward.

3. **Molding**: Some tribes used molds made from stone or wood to shape the clay.

Decoration

1. **Surface Smoothing**: The surface of the pottery would be smoothed using tools made from gourds, stones, or pieces of wood.

2. **Incising and Stamping**: Designs were often incised (carved) or stamped onto the surface using tools made from bone, wood, or stone.

3. **Painting**: Natural pigments made from minerals, plants, and other natural sources were used to paint designs on the pottery.

Drying and Firing

1. **Drying**: The shaped and decorated pots were left to air-dry slowly to prevent cracking.

2. **Firing**: The dried pots were fired in open pits or simple kilns. The firing process involved stacking the pottery in a pit, covering it with wood, bark, and other combustible materials, and then igniting the fire. The temperature and duration of the firing process varied, but it generally lasted several hours.

Regional Variations

- **Southwest Tribes (e.g., Pueblo, Navajo)**: Known for their intricately painted pottery with geometric designs and black-on-white or polychrome styles.

- **Eastern Woodlands Tribes (e.g., Iroquois, Cherokee)**: Often used the coiling method and decorated their pottery with stamped or incised designs.

- **Great Plains Tribes (e.g., Mandan, Hidatsa)**: Produced pottery with smooth surfaces and simple, functional designs.

- **Pacific Northwest Tribes (e.g., Tlingit, Haida)**: Less known for pottery due to the prevalence of wood carving, but some produced pottery with unique designs.

Cultural Significance

Pottery was used for a variety of purposes, including cooking, storage, and ceremonial functions. The designs and motifs on the pottery often had cultural and spiritual significance, representing tribal identity, mythology, and the natural environment.