Cherokee Art Market - Native American Times

8 NATIVE OKLAHOMA • OCTOBER 2013NATIVE OKLAHOMA • OCTOBER 2013 9R RDon’t pick up your pot by pinching the rim with your thumb on the insideand forefinger outside until AFTER it’s been fired.We each filled two five-gallon buckets with the sticky clay andhauled it back to her studio. We would process it during thenext class.Processing the clay was dirty work. Osti had filled the bucketswith water and made a sloppy mess of the clay mixture. We tookturns using a drill to mix the water into our clay until it hadWe placed our molded clay inside the bowl to ensure it retainedits shape while it dried and firmed up. It would be ready to addcoils to in a day or two.In the meantime, we went back to our first pots to refine anddecorate them. Designs are best applied when the pot is firmenough to hold. At this stage, the pots had the dull shine andfeel of old saddle leather. We chose traditional designs fromthe numerous examples Jane had to show us. We then usedvarious tools to etch the patterns into the clay. The last step wascreating a shiny finish using a polished stone to smooth awaythe thin dull outer film of dried clay. After rubbing and shining,our creations were nearly ready to fire. They just had to finishdrying.“Moisture in the clay will cause your pot to break while it’s inthe fire. It needs to be completely dried out before we put it in,”Osti told us.I broke mine before it made it into the fire. So much for beinga natural. Note to others: Don’t pick up your pot by pinchingthe rim with your thumb on the inside and forefinger outsideuntil AFTER it’s been fired.Osti teaches ongoing classes at the Cherokee Arts Center inTahlequah. For more information email JaneOsti@yahoo.comor look for her on Facebook.Nancy Enkey browses the pages of abook of Southeastern designs forsome ideas to use on her pottery.a yogurt-like thickness. The next step was pouring the liquidthrough a mesh sieve to strain out the bits of gravel. Finally, theclay was ready to pour into shallow bins to dry and thicken.Once firmed to a workable consistency, the clay had to be“wedged” - formed into a block and kneaded.“You’re not baking bread, Lisa. You need to be working theair bubbles out, not putting them in,” Osti corrected me.This required pushing into the clay with the heel of one handwhile twisting the protruding clay lump around with the otherhand and repeating until the clay had a uniform consistency. Itreminded me vaguely of the motions a taffy-pulling machinemakes.After we had our native clay ready to work with, Osti showedus another technique for creating the base of a pot. We rolledour clay into a ball before flattening it and rolling it out with arolling pin.“Roll it out almost like you’re making a pie crust,” Osti said.I believe I sighed. I’d never made a pie crust. I hadn’t evermade bread either, but I seemed to have the knack for that – ifyou judged by the way I kneaded clay. Maybe this was a skill I’dbe a natural at?We shaped our round platters of clay around the outside ofoverturned mixing bowls, gently patting the clay, coaxing itinto conforming to the contours of the bowl. This piece wouldbe the base for a larger pot or bowl than we made the first time.Rosa and Charlie Carter use a drillto stir the unprocessed clay.Ton-Kon-Gah, Kiowa Black Leggins Society members dance at Indian City Ceremonial Grounds located south of Anadarko.PHOTO BY Lester Harragarra