October gemstones are "Opal" Encourages both freedom & independence, "Tourmaline" Promotes Inspiration & Happiness
Deldrick Cellicion collaborates with his wife, Lorenda, and son Adam at Zuni Pueblo to create polychrome jars, bowls, effigies and wedding vases. His favorite designs are lizards, salamanders, frogs, rosettes, feathers and scroll but it has been the salamander designs that have captureded the eyes of many pueblo pottery enthusiasts and collectors in recent years.
The Cellicion family name has become synonymous with the three-dimensional lizard pattern. The pottery from Zuni Pueblo is easy to distinguish from other Pueblos. The artists from Zuni Pueblo create more open pieces such as baskets and bowls and are known for using common animal images like the deer, frog, lizard, tadpole and dragonfly. The build technique is known as coiled pottery in which the construction consists of rolling out flat pieces of clay and then rolling the pieces into long round strips. The strips are then coiled to form the rough shape of the pot and then smoothed out on a potter’s wheel. Figures are then added and the pot is fired and then hand painted.
Zuni Pueblo pottery is made of clay that uses crushed pottery shards or rock to temper it, which gives unfinished pottery a white color, almost like that of ceramic clays. However, most Zuni pottery is coated with a white or colored (usually red) slip and painted with black and red paints.
No special care is required, and a soft cloth is all that is needed to dust. As in all fine art your pottery should be kept out of direct unfiltered sunlight.