these clay pots have been fired to about
1200 degrees celsius
and eric lewis has about 30 seconds to
precisely place this horse hair to
create the background design for
ceramics that'll end up looking like
this
fired any hotter and the horsehair would
burn off leaving no marks and in a few
seconds the pot will be too cool for the
horsehair to carbonize and create an
imprint
eric combines traditional techniques
with some new ones to continue the
centuries-long history of native
american horse hair pottery
it reminds me of
of course grandmothers that have passed
on i just felt like a
it was more of a responsibility
because i don't want any
i don't want any of this to be a lost
culture a lost art
for generations the process has always
started the same
with collecting and sourcing materials
locally
my grandmother used to ask me to collect
pottery shards so i'll go around a top
sky city there and actually collect
pottery shards for her
and so that's something that always kind
of sticks with me
and it gives you an appreciation for
gathering your own materials because you
don't let any of the material go to
waste
the base of his pots consists of two
types of clay
these two get mixed with water to create
a substance called slip
one things that's nice about using the
local clay
is it can break down fairly easily
from there he pours the clay into a
plaster mold a technique called slip
casting
this method allows the slip to conform
to the shape of whatever mold eric
decides to use
after the slip in the mold dries eric
will separate it revealing the pottery
shape
instead of slip casting eric's mother
and grandmother created traditional
acoma pottery using a coiling method
this is where clay is rolled into long
snake-like logs and placed on top of
each other to create a pot
but pouring the slip into molds gives
the clay a different feel
the reason why i have to actually use
this method in particular is because i
need a very fine
type of clay originally we did try it
with the earth clay pottery the
traditional akama pottery but what
happens is the actual clay is going to
flake apart
you won't be able to see any of the
etchings
once a pottery has actually been taken
out from the the slipcast mold
i actually set it out to dry
i try not to rush any of the pieces so i
can actually set it out because of the
dry climate here once dry eric needs to
polish the pots this process is called
burnishing
this is actually an older traditional
method
that was taught by grandmother
the white stone has been handed down
from grandmother and basically what i'm
doing is giving the the clay itself a
smooth surface
you'll see it progress here
once we get that nice finish and i'm
able to fire
inside an electric kiln i don't use the
older method of the pip fire and app to
use a more modern version of the kiln
only because it's more of a controlled
firing
the electric kiln needs to be heated to
about 1200 degrees
if eric was making traditional akama
pottery the pot would be painted with
designs and shapes before the firing
process
but soon the horsehair will come into
play instead
once the pot is heated in the kiln eric
uses raku towns to take them out
he says he knows that the piece is at
the right temperature simply by feeling
the heat radiating off of it
next eric quickly adds wood chips to the
piece
[Music]
the purpose of the wood chips is to
create that background effect and create
smoke clouds but also to keep the clay
at a good amount of temperature that the
horseshit is actually going to melt onto
the surface
using combustible materials like wood
chips to change the color of heated
ceramic is actually a technique based on
a 20th century version of japanese raku
pottery
once the wood chips are properly burning
eric uses his other hand to lightly
place the horsehair onto the piece
instantly the hair carbonizes and the
clay absorbs deposits of carbon and
smoke from the hair
as the hair curls and moves along the
pot a thick dark line is left on the
surface
sometimes i have a predetermined design
i want to etch onto a pottery so what
i'll do is
put a little bit more horse hair in that
area of the the pottery itself if it's
more of like a open shape
that i don't want to add too much
etchings then i'll actually put
just a few strands just to create a
darkening effect so it really depends on
the piece that uh
i'm gonna be etching
eric must move quickly because he
doesn't have much time to place the
hairs
the combination of the wood chips and
hair burning together gives the pottery
more dimension than just paintwood and
creates a canvas for eric's next step
so when you get that contrast in color
i'm able to etch certain designs onto
the pottery
which some of them actually remind me of
rain clouds because of the dry climate
we're constantly praying for rain back
home in acoma native american horsehair
pottery goes back centuries but the
exact origins are unknown
it's said to have been discovered by a
woman pulling hot pottery out of kiln
according to the story that's been
passed down
a piece of her own hair dropped onto one
of the pots leaving a thin dark line
artists then began using horse hair
because it leaves a darker effect than
human hair
with hair from a horse's mane creating
finer lines while hair from the horse's
tail created thicker ones
using the hair of a favorite horse
became a way to commemorate the animal
eric's family began using hair to
decorate pottery in almost the same way
as they tell it 35 years ago a strand of
eric's mom's hair fell on a pot
which led them to start decorating with
human hair and eventually horse hair
and the similarities to the ancient
tradition don't stop there
i've actually gotten orders for folks
who own horses and ask if we can
incorporate some of the horse
that they used to have onto certain
pieces
once they're cooled eric uses the stylus
to etch designs into the pottery which
typically have a traditional meaning
[Music]
so all these different geometric designs
that you're seeing
we're taught
there's no stencils it's all just
freehand and basically carved out by
memory
takes a lot of time
when eric is finished etching these
designs by hand these pots are ready to
be sealed to preserve the quality
once his pieces along with the pieces
his parents make are finalized he sells
them on etsy
and he's in the process of passing akima
horsehair pottery onto the fifth
generation of potters his daughters
what i'm able to do is give him a
piece of the pottery
give them a tool and they're able to
etch a design onto it and that's one
thing that i remember
doing for my grandmother was actually
selling her pottery and telling her
story
you