For your consideration is this Original Signed Navajo Artist Faye B. Tso Ceramic White Vase, signature on the bottom Faye B Tso. Tso, also known as Faye Bilagody (1933 - 2014), was one of the first Navajo potters to using unconventional imagery in her pottery. Traditional Navajo pottery has very little decoration, but Tso applied images of corn maidens, warriors, and dancers onto the surface of the clay. She was a practicing Navajo herbalist, and her husband and a son are both medicine men. The family often use Tso’s pottery in their ceremonies, because "fire, cloud, and earth are all part of the Navajo way". Her work is hard to find for the general public as most of it is in museums, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum. In 1990, the Arizona Indian Living Treasures Association designated Tso as a living treasure. The clay selected can be from one source or from several sources blended together. The clay is coiled, shaped, and placed in an outdoor pit directly upon fuels such as cedar wood, juniper wood or sheep dung. After firing, and before the pot has cooled, melted piñon pitch is applied as a glaze, both inside and out. Tso's use of a corn cob decorates to exterior of the vase and is detailed.
This ceramic white vase is in a very nice condition, without the melted piñon pitch which is usually applied as a glaze, both inside and out. No obvious marring was noted. Vase measures 4.5"W x 7.25"H