It was a learning  - and doing - experience at Chimney Rock last weekend as lessons were provided in the arts and crafts of the Ancestral Puebloans. A three day Pottery Workshop workshop with potter Greg Wood taught the skills and patience involved in making ancient pottery.  Participants learned to replicate Pueblo III Mesa Verde, black-on-white, organically painted pottery. Participants gained an understanding of the fundamentals of craftsmanship, design, and prehistoric technology required to create and fire this ancient pottery, as they hand formed, burnished, decorated, and trench kiln fired the pottery using only prehistoric methods. (Instructor's website at http://www.ancientarts.org) 

It's all about the hands! The making of a paint brush from yucca fiber is shown here. A bone tool is used to flatten and scrape away all but the fibers, resulting in a brush used to paint designs on the pots.

Greg Wood, standing with camera, watches over the pottery students as designs are applied.

Lindsey Morgan, above, and Karen Aspen, below, apply complicated designs to the pot surface. The actual paint is applied later, and the pots were "fired" in a pit.

Pottery from Greg Wood's website.

Tha action sport of atlatl (at-lat-el) throwing was also available. Before they developed or learned about the bow and arrow, the Puebloans used a "throwing stick." The spear fit in a notch on the atlatl which lengthed the arm and made for a faster and longer throw. The atlatl took a high level of skill.

 

 

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