Perky Horny Toad Wedding Vase

Horny toads were part of growing up in the Southwest--memories !!!

Dramatic fire clouds on this jar add to the drama of its surface qualities.

Born Betty Barlow to the Red Running into the Water clan in 1945 on the Navajo Nation, Betty continues living on Navajo land. She and her husband have ten children, many of them potters. Betty learned pottery making from her mother, Zonie Barlow.

As early as 1978 Betty introduced a horny toad motif to her pots, winning awards for her work at the annual Navajo exhibitions held at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff and at the Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremony in Gallup, New Mexico.

Manygoats uses Navajo clay from Black Mesa, forming it into coils that wind upward. She then smooths the coiled clay and adds the decorations. Horned toad scales are fashioned with a bobby pin. After the piece has dried in the sun, it is placed in an open-pit kiln and covered with cow dung. Cedar is often used as fuel for the kiln. Fireclouds occur where the wood ash comes in contact with the clay. After firing warm pinon pitch is applied inside and out.

Manygoats is one of the most innovative Navajo potters working today. Her work was featured in a 1988 exhibition at the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe and a 1990 exhibition at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff.

The above was taken from the Museum of American Folk Art Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century American Folk Art and Artists by Chuck and Jan Rosenak 1990.