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Although raku pottery is my primary art form and source of
inspiration in ceramics, horsehair pottery is so popular, and my
customers buy so much of it, I just cannot stop making it.
People who have seen it before they come into my booth at art
shows usually found it while vacationing in New Mexico or
Arizona. But most have never seen it, simply because there are
so few potters outside the American Southwest who make it
regularly. It has an interesting history, and people are
fascinated both by its history and by the process used to
produce it.
 As the story has been told to me, the idea of horsehair
pottery originated with Gary and Corrine Louis, who are members
of the Yellowcorn clan at the Acoma Pueblo, located about 60
miles west of Albuquerque, NM. Corrine Louis is a third
generation Native American potter, who, like all of her
neighbors at "Sky City," builds her pottery kiln in a
mound of earth piled over bricks on the ground. One day in the
late 1980s, she was bending over to remove some hot ware from
her kiln and her own hair fell against it, leaving a scorched
mark of burned carbon and smoke on the clay surface.
The effect of this serendipitous event was to lead Corrine
and her husband Gary to months of experimentation with other
organic materials such as straw, pine needles, feathers, and,
finally, hair from the tail of the horse. When they finally
achieved an effect that they liked, they began teaching other
potters how to do it.
Gary’s brother, Irvin Louis, also a
member of the Yellowcorn clan, is one of a very few
potters at the Acoma Pueblo who make horsehair pottery.
Gary and Corrine have continued to make their
"human hair" pottery, although the finer
texture of the human hair strand leaves less of a clear
mark than does the more coarse horsehair. Today, if you
travel throughout New Mexico and Arizona or if you
search for Horsehair Pottery on the Internet, you’ll
find much of it associated with Navajo potters as well.
In fact, a search on an Internet search engine turns up
a about 10 web sites for Navajo pottery for every one
that leads you to Acoma pottery. Sometimes Navajo
potters will add a piece of turquoise stone to |
Gary (left) and Irvin Louis
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their
horsehair pots and often will attach a piece of deer or
elk antler or skin as a fetish. My horsehair pots are
made according to what I understand to be the original
Acoma Pueblo style of the Yellowcorn Louises. |
You can learn more about Irvin Louis, and Gary and Corrine
Louis and see samples of their current work at www.pueblodirect.com.
Select "Artist Information" and click on Corrine,
Gary, or Irvin Louis.
 Horsehair pottery is made from a white stoneware clay that
has been bisque fired to a lower than usual temperature. This
leaves the fired clay body quite porous, enabling it to absorb
the carbon from burning hair. Later, the bisque is warmed up in
the kiln to about 1300 degrees Fahrenheit. When it is removed,
individual strands of horsehair, preferably from the tail, are
laid against the hot surface. If the temperature on the surface
of the piece is just right, the hair will attach to the pot,
shrivel up, and begin to burn. As the ash forms, a small deposit
of carbon and smoke is absorbed into the clay surface, leaving a
permanent trace of the horsehair. As the temperature falls below
900 degrees Fahrenheit, the pot will no longer accept the hair,
and the process is over. When the ashes are washed away and the
piece is completely dry, it is usually polished with a paste wax
or sprayed with an aerosol furniture polish to give it a soft
satin finish and lasting luster. Irvin Louis always etches a
design into the surface of his pieces after the horsehair is
applied.
It is an interesting fact that most of the contemporary
potters who make horsehair pieces are also raku artists. Perhaps
it is because we honor the traditions of other ceramic cultures
and prefer to make items that offer primarily an artistic rather
than functional value to the collector. The important thing for
the informed ceramic lover to remember is that horsehair
pottery is not a form of raku pottery. Researching
horsehair on the Internet could easily lead one to wrongly
conclude the opposite. The raku ware has a tradition which grew
out of 16th century Japan, and it is produced there
today with very strict adherence to the traditional ways (see
the About Raku page on this
site). Horsehair pottery is a 20th century Native
American tradition which, because of its simple beauty, has been
adopted by other potters who also do contemporary American raku.
Because horsehair pottery must be porous in order to achieve
the effect, it is not to be used as a water vessel for fresh
flowers. Its use is solely as a piece of art to enhance the
décor of your favorite room and to make a statement about your
appreciation of Native American fine craft.
If you ever have a chance to see it made and watch each hair
form its own unique squiggly line, you’ll know immediately
that you are witnessing another example of the partnership which
exists between the hand of the artist and the hand of Nature.
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