Pottery: pitcher

Pottery: pitcher

Cherokee pottery

Handicraft

Pottery

This undated pottery pitcher was made by Amanda Sequoyah Swimmer (b. 1921), a self-taught potter of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. The youngest of 12 children, she was born and raised in the Straight Fork section of Big Cove, a remote section of the Qualla Boundary. For many years, she worked at Oconaluftee Indian Village where she was originally hired to demonstrate finger weaving. She quickly switched to pottery, learning from fellow demonstrators. Swimmer uses traditional techniques and tools, never a potter’s wheel. She presses designs onto the surface of the clay with wooden paddles or incises linear designs using sharp stick. The form was built upward using the coil method to shape the upright pitcher. A large handle was added to complete the piece. The earthenware clay was burnished to a fine sheen, before incising patterns around the circumference of the pitcher.

Swimmer, Amanda

Artifact Collection

Hunter Library Digital Collections, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC 28723

unknown

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

jpg

crafts (art genres)

StillImage

16290

https://southernappalachiandigitalcollections.org/object/16290

2009-10-07

All rights reserved. For permissions and use, contact Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual, Inc., Cherokee, NC 28719;

Qualla Boundary

Appalachian Region, Southern

6.75" x 5.25" x 3.5"(dimension)

Craft Revival