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Hopi Art The Hopi world revolves around art. Not only do the Hopis create beautiful arts and crafts, but every aspect of their ritual life involves art.
Pottery Photo source:Saunders, Charles Francis -- The Indians of the Terraced Houses - - New York, London : G. P. Putnam's sons, 1912. Kachinas/Katsinas/Tihu During ceremonial performances Kachina dolls are given to the babies, girls and young women of the Hopi villages. Hopi men carve likenesses of the Kachinas from cottonwood root, and these are the well-known Kachina dolls that are of special interest to collectors. Carvers have only been selling their dolls actively since around 1880.
Creating Kachinas: Each doll is carved from the root of a cottonwood (water seeking) tree after it has eroded and washed down one of the many arroyas. A sharp stone flake and a block of sandstone were formerly used for carving. Today, saws, chisels and pocket knives are used for shaping the wood and carving the details. The form is sanded to a smooth finish with rasp and sandpaper. The surface is coated with a layer of fine clay to make a painting ground. Colors and symbols, formerly painted with native pigments, later with tempera and casein, are today done with acrylics. Feathers (from domestic fowl only), fur, shells, leather, metal, etc.,represent the actual items worn by the kachina dancers. These are often a key to the purpose of the supernatural being represented. |
Hopi pottery history goes back more than a thousand years. Since the 1890s, however, First Mesa and the village of Hano (founded by Tewa-speaking peoples from the Rio Grande in 1680) have dominated Hopi pottery. Potters use the unique clay in this area to make great quantities of some of the finest of all pueblo pottery. By 1900, Nampeyo of Hano became the first celebrity potter. 20th-century Hopi Pottery is defined by what she and her family created.