1992-07 Low-Shouldered Jar – Complex Design

Hopi low-shouldered bowl, Sikyatki design elements and mutton-fat finish by Marcella Kahe. As on 1989-01, Ms. Kahe has chosen to continue the design around the curve of the bowl onto the lower surface–an unusual pattern. I had spent a couple of hours visiting with Ms. Kahe in her home in Sichomovi (on top of First Mesa) two days earlier. Now 75 years old, she has returned to potting after a period following her husband’s death when she could not work. She recently taught her sister to pot using the unusual Marcella red/orange slip and designs. Marcella is a delightful woman with a twinkle in her eye who had heard of me from Karen and Samuel and greeted me with a smile and a hearty “Oh, you’re Houston!” I visited her again in May of 1993 and for several years thereafter. She had a goiter operation in March ‘93 but is feeling better and had returned to potting during the last couple of weeks. During this 1993 visit, she told me of the “Arizona Indian Living Treasures” award she was to receive in October, 1993. (I sent flowers. What fun.) I try to visit her each time I return to Hopi. In the summer of 2007 she left the mesa and went to live in a retirement home in Flagstaff.