By Melissa Rupp

    When most people look at a piece of pottery the first thing that comes to mind is the significance of the symbols and the stories behind these symbols. There are some symbols of  Hopi pottery that have stories behind them and some that are symbols of either lost significance or the story is unknown. Some of the symbols we think of as symbols, are really the potters own design.  Most people make the mistake that symbols and designs are the same thing, but in fact they are very different. Hopi potters, mostly women, have been instrumental in both preserving and developing traditional symbols and innovating designs in response to changes in and challenges to their culture.
    In the beginning, symbolism was used for a means of communication. The reason for this was because during this time most Native American’s were Illiterate. Instead of using letter’s in the alphabet, as we do today , they used pictures (Douglas 42). This came to become what we call symbolism.
    With a piece of pottery to paint, the Hopi potter uses his/hers artistic ability to produce a design that is very pleasing to the eye. Most of these designs are not intended to be symbols. But when the “white man” see’s  this design he immediately thinks it is symbolism. The Indian thinks that if he tells the “white man” that this is just a design he will not believe him, so instead he makes up a story.  This helps the Indian market his product as well as avoid confusion on the meaning of the pottery by the “white man” (“Museum Notes: An Introduction”1).
    When the potter is getting ready to start the painting process he /she already knows the design that is going to be painted on the piece. The Hopi potters do not draw the designs on the pots or trace it from a piece of paper. They do not sketch it will a pencil, it is all free hand. The potter does not look at the design or shape of piece of pottery until the complete piece is finished. Once the pot is finished, the potter looks at it and if there is something wrong with it, such as it is lop-sided or the design is corked, he/she takes it as a learning experience , and will know what not to do the next time (“Museum Notes” 3).
    If on the other hand, he/she has not decided on a design he/she may take the pot in his/her hands and close his/her eyes and imagine a design that would fit the pot which would be attractive on the piece. A very famous potter, Maria Martinez creates all of her pottery by first closing her eyes with the piece in her hands and then imagining what would look good on this piece and what will fit perfectly. Another artist, Carol Duwyenie, states “My creations in art revolve around symbolism in the relationship to life and Hopi Philosophy of the earth. Just like the paths of life change, twist, and turn, so has my work. I have taken different paths to express my creativity....”(Duwyenie 1). Everyone has there own way of deciding what to place on their art. As mentioned above, some artists know right from the start what the design will be , but some do not and some use both strategies depending on the piece.
    There are several strategies to keep the pot flawless. The most common strategy is to border the area to be designed with several lines to keep it from becoming slated or lopsided. The area is first sectioned off into two or more sections depending on the complexity. The drawing goes from largest design elements to the smaller more detailed designs.  Area’s of the pot that are to become colored in, are first outlined and then colored in.  The Hopi potter does not necessarily complete one section and then go on to the next section. The artist can have several sections started and go around randomly to each section. Color is very important when talking about a design. The body of the pottery is a golden-yellow color normally.  The designs appear in deep, brownish-black, and occasionally can be mixed with an orange-red color. Slipping, a white soft mineral coat used in solution, can also be done to change the color and make the pottery more smooth and “uniform” in color and can serve as a great background for the painting of the designs (“Museum Notes” 3).
    Among the Hopi potters , the painting of the design or symbol on the piece is done mostly by women. There are a few women that stand out among others.  Sylvia Naha a famous Hopi potter has her own story of how her designs came to be her own.  Her first piece of pottery came about when she was playing with the adobe in her fathers’ field. One day her father dug up a pot that had designs of swirls on it. Since the time of the discovery of this design, Sylvia used this design in her work. She is now trying to mix her designs with more traditional ones such as animals and natural phenomena (Chaney 1).
     There were some men, though rarely, that actually painted the designs on the pieces, as did Maria Martinez's husband. Martinez and her husband,Julian, were known to discover black on black pottery.Maria was one of the founders of Hopi pottery design. Even though her husband did the painting most of the time, she created the designs. The famous feather design and the Pueblo water serpent were invented by Maria and Julian (University of Dallas 2-4).  The design shown below could have been on either a constricted-mouthed bowl or an olla-bowl of feathers. This illustration here has step by step stages of how the design was created (Guthe 80).
 
 

   The first step in the design is  illustration ‘a’ which was the construction of the outline of the border. The second illustration ‘b’ shows the construction of the half circle and two triangles. The next step ‘c’ is where the plumes are outlined. Then in ‘d’ the triangles are filled in with black pigment. Next in illustration ‘e’ we see dots in the two of the plumes. These dots can be either in numbers of six or seven. Step ‘f’ shows the filling in of V and VII with red pigment . This step is the end of the construction of the feather. The remaining steps are the construction of the semicircles below the feathers. Illustration ‘g’ is the construction of four semicircles with triangles below each one which are outlined.  In step ‘h’ the drawing of  two very small semicircles are outlined under each of the triangles. The last step ‘i’ consists on filling in the triangles which are filled in with black pigment (Guthe 80).
    Nampeyo is the one of the most famous, if not the most famous, Hopi potter.  Nampeyo first got started in her potter design by gathering sherds from the ruin at Silkyayki, studying these fragments and trying to figure out the design on these fragments.  After studying these fragments for a period of time, she did not need them anymore and discarded them (“Museum Notes” 2). Nampeyo says “When I first began to paint, I use to go to the village and pick up pieces of pottery and copy the designs. That is how I learned to paint. But now I just close my eyes and see designs and paint them”(Bunzel 56). Her pottery did not copy the Sikyatki, but instead her imagination recreated the form that was used in Sikyatki (88). Some of these designs or symbols include swirling patterns of birds, butterflies, and feathers (Bassman 74).
    Hisi Nampeyo, Nampeyo’s great great granddaughter is also famous for her pottery. She follows Nampeyo’s designs plus some of her own. She likes to paint the hummingbird as well as the butterfly. The piece of pottery below, was designed by Hisi and also painted by her. If we look at the symbols, we see that there is the same design on all four panels. We see the symbols of rain falling far away, and the triangles as seen in Maria Martinez, which is a symbol for the hillside or hill with the design of the swirls as was carried down from her great great grandmother.
 
 

    There are some designs in Hopi pottery though that are symbols and not just an individual own creation. These symbols fall into three categories. The first  category includes the natural phenomena such as clouds, rain, and water still and running. The second category is the gods who personified and control the natural phenomena such as the sky god, the cloud god, the water god, and the germination gods. The last category is the paraphernalia used in spiritual ceremonies to entreat these gods. The paraphernalia include things such as moulds, polishing stones, water containers, and firing accessories (Patterson I).
    The Natural phenomena are symbols including clouds, rain, snow, lightning, thunder, wind, and still and running water. The most important natural phenomena in Northern Arizona is the need for rain. This area does not receive very much rain, but yet they have managed to farm corn, beans, and squash for many centuries and
these crops survived even through the years of drought.  Another important symbol is the whirlwind symbol.
 
 

This symbol came about when a huge whirlwind blew all of the crops and vegetation from the surface of the earth and took all of the water also. One day a complete stranger came to the people but could not communicate by mouth so he did it with signs. With a tool called a flint, he drew these symbols on a rock and told the people he was the “Keeper of the Breath. The winds, the whirlwinds, and the air which men breathe come from the keepers mouth.” He sat upon a mountain and blew strong winds, distributing to everyone a share of breath. He was sometimes evil : he twists and controls himself in the form of whirlwind and he cries “Ho-bo-bo, Ho-bo-bo as he whirls about endeavoring to steal man’s breath”. ( Ho-bo-bo stands for the spirit of the twister, the whirlwind, and the breath.) As we can see, some of these natural symbols do have a story behind them, such as the whirlwind (Patterson 27).
    The other important symbols do not have stories behind them or we do not have documentation of the stories. These symbols below are some of the basic more popular symbols of Hopi pottery (Guthe 87).
 
 
 
 
 

Rain Falling Far Away	Rainwater	Clouds	Feathers
Wind Cloud	Thunder	Lightning

 

     Hopi pottery design and symbolism are very catching to the eye, once you know what to look for. A symbol and a design have two different meanings that are very distinct. Symbolism and design of Hopi pottery started out as a means of communication and through time was made in the mind of the buyer as it is today. If  you were to look at a piece of pottery, I hope you could feel confident in identifying some of the most common designs and symbols on Hopi pottery.

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Bassman, Theda. Treasures of the Hopi.  Flagstaff: Northland Publishing, 1997.

Bunzel, Ruth. The Pueblo Potter: A Study of Creative Imagination in the Primitive  Art. New York: Dover Publications, inc., 1972.

Chaney, Tanner. “Syvia Naha: Hopi Potter.” Tanner Chaney Gallery. http://www.tannerchaneygallery.com/1naha.htm (25 March 1999).

Douglas, Frederic. “Symbolism in Indian Art and the Difficulties of its  Interpretation.” Denver: Denver Art Museum,1934.

Duwyenie, Carol. “The Artists: Carol Duwyenie.” Carol Duwyenie. http://www.swaina.org/carold.htm

Guthe, Carl. Pueblo Pottery Making: A study at the Village of San Ildefonso.   Massachusetts: Yale University Press, 1925.

“Museum Notes: An Introduction to Hopi Pottery Design.” Northern Arizona  Society of Science and Art, Inc.,  July 1937.

Patterson, Alex. Hopi Pottery Symbols. Boulder: Johnson Printing Company,1994.

University of Dallas. “Five Generations of Native American Pueblo Works.”   University of Dallas Upstairs Haggar.
     http://www.udallas.edu/artdept/nceca98/5generations/pueblo.htm  (31 March 1999).