Karen Abeita Pottery

Karen Abeita Pottery For Sale!!

Karen Abeita’s pottery is among the finest art-work produced at Hopi today. She is a kind and pleasant woman with a VERY warm smile…. and she creates beautiful QUALITY pottery art of varying sizes, shapes, and designs.

Recently, we asked Karen if she could give us a little ‘bio’ for our customers. She said that she would be happy to send us an email with some information. What we received was certainly more than just ‘relevant biographical information’. We enjoyed her words so much that we just decided to simply copy her letter right over to this page. We hope that everyone will appreciate Karen Abeita and her pottery art even much more having learned about her from her own words. Karen wrote:

“I am Po’Tsa-Weh (Blue Water). My English name Is Karen Abeita. I come from a Tewa mother and a Isleta Pueblo father. I have been raised in a traditional Tewa home and am a member of the Kachina/Parrot clan. I live in Polacca,, located on the Hopi Indian Reservation in Northeastern Arizona. I live a very strong traditional life where I speak my native language and still participate in the dances and ceremonies.
I have been a potter since I could put my hands in the clay bucket. My grandmother , Mamie Nahoodyce and her sister, Patty Maho and my great-grandmothers, Po’Tsah-Weh, Pong Sayah, Kweh –Kah and Paqua Sayah, along with several other aunts, Joy Navasie, Beth Sakeva and Sadie Adams were all known and respected potters. However, my childhood friend Fawn Navasie , which I am very grateful to, is the one who was my teacher. With her expertise and patience, she taught me how to mold large potteries, how to fire using sheep manure and most of, how to respect the clay and never forget to pray. I believe also that putting ones heart and mind into what one is creating is the ultimate reward in the end because in front of my eyes Is something I’ve created. So it is here that I thank the clay for letting me be who I am.
My pottery is all hand coiled. The only tool I use is a piece of gourd that I use to shape my pots. My potteries range from 3” X 2” to almost twenty-four inches in diameter and eighteen inches in height. The painting is done with brushes I make from the yucca plant and the paint is made from the mustard seed plant. The paint is then poured onto a painting stone and rubbed back n forth with black hematite. The paint is one of the most important procedures. You can paint the most beautiful design on your pottery but if you didn’t mix your paint properly, it will completely rub off…not good. After the painting is complete, the pottery is then fired outside with sheep manure. This will take up to 6 hours to complete as patience is the key. Cooling off too soon or uncovering too soon will result in the pottery cracking. I allow the pots to cool off slowly, thus taking almost all day or firing in evening and uncovering in the morning.
The designs I paint on my pottery are usually duplicates of prehistoric pottery mainly from the ancient village of Sikatki. Today, Sikatki is in ruins and on the ground lie thousands of broken pottery shards. To me, the ruins are a gold mine. I have never seen one design the same. I love to stand on the highest point and let my imagination try and take me back in time to when there was a village here. What did the potter feel like when she was uncovering her pot? Was she excited? Did everyone come to see the latest masterpiece? When I make my journey to the ruins, I walk around and copy whatever designs are on the broken shards. After filling up several pages of designs, I go home and begin to paint what I call a shard pot. It consist of hundreds of designs , never the same size, shape or style. It is also very time consuming to paint. A small shard pot takes me about eight days from sun up to sun down. It is a style I have worked so hard in creating and still continue to create as new designs are found.
My pottery has taken me to many places. By invitation, I was able to see the large collection of Sikatki pottery in the vaults at the University ‘s museum in Philadelphia. I was only able to see the pottery from a book so to me seeing the actual pots that were once made approximately two miles from my home but in the early 1300’s was like a connection of the past to the present. Here I was surrounded by rows and rows of shelves loaded with pottery from Sikatki. I took out my sketch book and a pencil, quickly sat down and began copying the designs.
I applied to the biggest Indian art show in North America, the Sante Fe Indian Market and was selected as one of the upcoming new artist from several hundred applicants. I knew in my mind that there was no turning back. All the hard work and long hours was now paying off. I now had to prove to myself and the world that I too was a traditional potter. I have now participated in 19 Indian market shows, consecutively and have won numerous awards including the Helen Naha Memorial award, Best of Show, Lawrence Indian Art Show. Best of Division, Traditional Hand Painted Pottery, Heard Museum Show, 1st Place , Traditional Pottery, Eiteljorg Museum. Knowing it takes only the best to win the Helen Naha award and to be in the company of award winning Tewa Potters such as Rondina Huma, Steve Lucas, Mark Tahbo, Rainy Naha and Diana Tahbo means I too have achieved a major goal in my life. Another goal I have set is to get all the designs I have collected from the ruins of Sikatki in a book so one can see what was left for our generation of potter and for the future potters on their way.
I plan to work harder to continue to develop my skills as an artist, a student and a teacher…..for I am a traditional potter and to call my pottery traditional, I must do my work exactly the way my ancestors made their pottery hundreds of years ago. I must Never change a thing. This is where I picture myself teaching the younger generation what I know and they too can learn and teach it on to the next generation because it is them who will be taught to be humble, to be proud of their work and most of all, trust in ones heart and mind for the clay will do what it wants. It has a mind of its own. It is up to our generation and generations to follow to keep this tradition of beauty from the earth alive.”

In 2004, Karen Abeita won the Helen Naha Memorial Award at the Santa Fe Indian Market.