Mata Ortiz pottery!

[Kali]

hand built (no wheels) most are thin as eggshells, painted with a brush made from a few human hairs.

addictive.

[Sanity Claws]

1. Are they all yours?

I fell in love with the pottery of SW Native Americans when I visited New Mexico a few years ago. I just wish I could afford more of it.

[Kali]

2. Nope - that all went to Germany with a friend of mine. My house is getting too full

and I just bought a couple of small pieces. Mata Ortiz pottery is much more affordable than most Native pottery, although the first generation masters are now in the thousands for good work. A decent collectible piece like the old Casas Grandes style jar in the upper left can be had for a few hundred (less if you go get it in Mata Ortiz) You can buy decent tourist ware for $15 or so.

This is my prize from a couple of years ago:

[yellowdogintexas]

3. Mata Ortiz...where does one find it? I LOVE pottery!

sorry to show my ignorance!

[Kali]

4. It seems to be everywhere I go!

Mostly low grade tourist stuff in every damn gift shop in the southwest! It's from a tiny town in Chihuahua near Casas Grandes. The story of Juan Quezada is fascinating and if you google his name or Mata Ortiz you will find TONS of info (some of it pretty innacurate). This guy sort of recreated a prehistoric pottery tradition all on his own, by experimenting and it spread to this whole village and now it is a focus of all kinds of attention. The best book on it is called "The Miracle of Mata Ortiz" by a guy named Walter Parks.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

6. Here's a website with a large gallery, that offers some pieces for sale...

http://www.mataortiz.com/index.html

I like this one:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

5. They're beautiful!

Thanks for sharing!