Six Nations -Mohawk- Kanyengeh Pottery- Pot/Vase by Karen Williams

The following information was copied from Shoot Magazine who had listed a Vase by the Kanyengeh Pottery for sale. My vase is signed KAREN for Karen Williams and was found in a small antique store in Southern Florida.

This is a first concerted effort came from a few dedicated women and men at the Six Nations Reserve in Canada in the late 1960s. (Near Brantford, Ontario). The late Elda and Oliver Smith along with Sylvia Smith, Dee Martin, and Karen Williams began to create a form of pottery which became known as Mohawk Pottery. While using an electric wheel and kiln, they produced pots which were Haudenosauneein designs yet modern in function. These artisans developed a brown wash which resembled the colors of the ancient pots and studied the geometric design elements to decorate their pots. In time they also began to use the clay as a canvas, incising into the clay, designs which symbolically represented events in their history or meaningful values such as a tree of peace or clan animal. Others such as Darlene Smith, have now joined this original studio known as Kanyengeh Pottery and a few potters have developed their own style of creating in clay. Kanyengeh Pottery has now closed, but a few potters continue on their own. Today, the son of Elda and Oliver Smith, Steve and his wife Leigh, have a successful studio at Six Nations. Their pots are in many ways their canvas for delicate carvings and incising of images of nature and symbols of theHaudenosaunee.

My friend SEAN of SEAN68 fame uploaded one a few years ago and I thoroughly loved it so I was more than pleased to find this one. RER