Navajo Pottery Native American Indian Art Yei Seed Mini Pot - Nancy Chilly - NEW 

Navajo Pottery Native American Indian Art Yei Seed Mini Pot - Nancy Chilly - NEW

Condition – New

Made by Nancy Chilly

It features 4 Yei’s (holy spirit) figures.

Retail -  $50.00

Size:  approximatly 1.8” high – 1.8” wide - 5.5" around

Purchased directly from the Navajo Nation Indian Reservation (Utah/Arizona).

Each pot varies slightly since they are handmade, hand etched, hand fired and hand painted.

Nancy etches the designs in the clay and then paints them. She uses heated pine pitch for the glaze. She lives in southern Utah on the Navajo Nation.  A tag with her photo is included.

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Thank you very much – Have nice day !!!

Chilly, Nancy - Dine' (Navajo Nation)

Nancy Chilly makes traditional Navajo pottery.   Nancy signs her work, "NAC" on the bottom of the pottery.

Nancy Chilly goes to the Cow Springs area in Arizona- as do most Navajo potters- to get their clay. They buy crushed lava in Farmington, New Mexico, to use as temper in their clay. And they search the trees of Ute Mountain area, by Towoac, Colorado, for the pinion gum from which to melt down for the pitch. So their pottery is truly representative of the famous Four Corners area, the only place in the United States where four state corners meet, and a synonymous geographical term with the Navajo reservation, the Navajo homeland basically covering this same area.

Working on about a dozen pieces at a time, she uses her hands to form the clay against a bowl, and then put the two halves together, cutting out the top. In the old style, they use a corn cob to rough up the seam and seal it. After being smoothed, each pot is allowed to dry, then it is etched.  Nancy uses portrays of Yei be Chei figures, supernatural helping and healing beings. Yei’s in the partially human form portray deities of the Mountainway or Night Chant, traditional Navajo ceremonies. 

After being etched, the pots are painted and fired, and then the pitch is applied. She simply pours liquid pitch inside and swirls it around to coat the interior, and then use wax paper to apply it to the outside of the pot, giving it a high sheen. They also use textile designs, eagle feathers, rainbows, rain, and lightning, all sacred and important signs of life to the Navajo people.  

She signs her work with initials - NAC, written on a slant.