Pueblo pottery making: a study at the village of San Ildefonso

by Carl E. Guthe

PLATE 31

ZUÑI. PAINTING AND FIRING

a. Applying design with yucca-leaf brush. Black pigment in shallow stone mortar, red in small white bowl. b. Building oven of dung cakes—note kindling at feet of figure at right. c. Oven domed over and set afire.

(Photographs from American Museum of Natural History).

In underfired vessels the color of the pigments is not true, being usually midway between the unfired color and the fired color; as a rule the paste is also dark and friable. Overfiring is more easily detected than underfiring. A slight overfiring may be first noticed in the black guaco paint, which has a tendency to become bluish and light if burned too much. Other bad results follow in quick succession as overfiring is increased: at an early stage the white slip becomes smoky; in severe overfiring it may turn black, as in a smoke-cloud; the paint of the designs is apt to flake off; and finally, in a bad case, the guaco will turn nearly white.

Treatment after Burning

Polished black vessels, when removed from the fire, are set directly upon the ground within a foot or two of the oven. They are at once wiped hastily with a dry cloth to prevent any fragments of the new manure from sticking to the surface. When the vessels are sufficiently cooled they are again wiped with a clean dry cloth and taken into the house for storage. Occasionally the first wiping, while the bowl is still hot, is omitted.

When pieces of polychrome ware or red ware are removed from the oven they are placed on the ground some six or eight feet from the fire, resting on tins in order to prevent possible discoloration from contact with the damp soil, as well as to prevent dust and dirt from sticking to their bases. The vessels are piled on these tins in any manner, often three or four on top of one another. When the pottery first comes from the fire, it is still much too hot to touch, and radiates heat copiously. Ten or fifteen minutes later, when the vessels are cool enough to handle, they are removed from the tins and collected at some convenient place to await wiping.