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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Taupou, post: 3570369, member: 45&quot;]An</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>And despite all the claims online, the &quot;horsehair&quot; pottery technique was not invented by the Navajo, or Acoma, or any Native American tribe.&nbsp; It was an outgrowth of the American raku pottery process (also called post-firing reduction), credited to American potter Paul Soldner, in the 1960s.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>American raku involves taking a red-hot pot out of the kiln, and putting it in an atmosphere where there is no oxygen, causing a chemical reaction that turns the clay body black when it can&#039;t get oxygen.&nbsp; If something like horsehair is placed on the red-hot pot, it can also turn the clay black where it ignites and blocks the oxygen.</p><p><br /></p><p>Studio potters all over the country were doing raku, and making horsehair pottery in the 1960s/1970s.&nbsp; I was teaching pottery in the 1970s, and remember seeing my first piece of horsehair pottery in a gallery in Santa Fe, made by a studio potter.&nbsp; It wasn&#039;t until years later that it was picked up, and &quot;claimed&quot; by some Native American potters in the Southwest.</p><p><br /></p><p>It was probably found that a &quot;story&quot; to accompany the pots helped sales.&nbsp; So just like in the case of &quot;wedding vases,&quot; a fantasy story was created, and repeated, ended up on line, and now is believed by many.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Those stories usually start with &quot;it is said...&quot; or &quot;according to legend...&quot; or claims that the process is &quot;an ancient technique...&quot; none of which is true.&nbsp; It&#039;s a process invented by an American studio potter in the 1960s/1970s, and done by countless studio potters and hobby potters world-wide ever since, and now by Native American potters.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Don&#039;t be misled by unsubstantiated claims or attempts to rewrite history, even if it&#039;s on numerous websites![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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