Facts About Hopi Indian Pottery

The Clay

• Native clay is dug up from proprietary areas, and any observable impurities are removed. Then it is reconstituted and rolled into thick, long clay strings. The strings are coiled on top of each other to build the walls of the pot. Once it is the desired height, the clay is smoothed outside and inside into one uniform piece. The other method of forming pots is to carve out a large clay ball with pottery tools passed down from earlier Hopi generations.