Primitive Pottery

The Oldest Potters Clay in the Southwest is Disappearing

I go looking for the oldest potters clay in the American Southwest near Tucson, Arizona only to find that this clay is rapidly disappearing beneath concrete. Explore the remote prehistory of ceramics and the long ancient ceramic traditions of the Tucson area.

To learn more about how to locate and process wild clay check out my online class "Wild Clay 101" at this link

Some images in this video came from the following sources:

#archaeology #tucson #clay

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Make a Southwest Style Sugar Bowl, Coil Pottery Project

Another in my "Practical Primitive" series, this time I am replacing a broken sugar canister. This is a fun project that you can follow along with at home and make this great Southwest style sugar bowl. If you are interested in making this and have questions about what materials and tools to use here is a list of materials and substitutes

A sugar bowl is something everyone can use and the pottery does not need to be sealed to use for dry material storage so earthenware like this works great.

My students and I make pottery together over Zoom every Wednesday evening. Please consider joining us

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Classes, tools and pottery are available at my online store:

📚 Improve your pottery skills
Check out my in-person pottery workshops and online masterclasses to improve your pottery making skills.

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Andy Ward PO Box 43601 Tucson, AZ 85733

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#handbuildingpottery #pottery

0:00 Sugar Bowl Project & Needed Tools
1:06 Coil Building a Pot
4:30 Turning a Pot Into a Lidded Bowl
7:37 Scraping and Smoothing The Pot
8:44 Slipping and Burnishing the Sugar Bowl
9:53 Painting Designs on the Sugar Bowl
11:17 Firing the Sugar Bowl in My Yard
12:35 The Reveal and Using the Sugar Bowl

3 Things You Need to Start Making Southwest Pottery

Getting started making Southwest pottery can seem daunting. This video will help you connect with all the resources you need to start in Southwest pottery, the tools, materials and the skills. Below are links to some of the resources I talk about in the video.

TOOLS
Gourd scrapers and polishing stones:
Pukis:

MATERIALS
Low fire clay:
Iron oxide for paint:

SKILLS – SELF PACED
Online video classes:
My blog:
Tony Soares YouTube channel:
Clint Swink's book:

SKILLS – WORKSHOPS & CONFERENCES
Andy Ward (me):
Cherylene Caver:
Kelly Magleby:
SW Kiln Conference:

#southwestpottery #coilpottery #pottery

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NOTE: This description contains affiliate links that allow you to find the items mentioned in this video and support the channel at no cost to you. While this channel may earn minimal sums when the viewer uses the links, the viewer is in NO WAY obligated to use these links. Thank you for your support!

Making Sinagua/Anasazi Primitive Pottery With Native Clay

The prehistoric Sinagua or ancestral Hopi lived in the Flagstaff/Camp Verde areas 950 years ago. Like most ancient tribes of the American Southwest, the Sinagua manufactured beautiful plain ware pottery of different sizes and shapes. In this video Jeff Martin shows you how to craft a Prehistoric Sinagua style jar.

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Meet Clint Swink, Anasazi Pottery Master

Clint Swink has been replicating Anasazi pottery since the 1980s. In this video we explore his story, what motivated him to make Anasazi pottery, who he learned from along the way and how he came to discover the method for firing an Anasazi trench kiln.

#masterpotter #anasazipottery

Clint Swink's website –

Clint's Book "Messages From the High Desert" –

If you would like to see a Swink style Anasazi trench kiln firing attend the Southwest Kiln Conference –

Learn to make ancient southwest pottery replicas –

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Earth and Fire: Anasazi Style Pottery

Watch artist and primitive potter Kelly Magleby learn about and make Anasazi style pottery. Kelly went into the backcountry of Southern Utah with a knife and a buckskin to try to learn about Anasazi Pottery by doing it the way the Anasazi did it. "Earth and Fire" is a documentary poem about a passionate artist. Funded by Primitive Found (.org) Music by Jason Shaw @ audionautix.com Check out Kelly's art at anasazipottery.net This the 1st video of 2016 for The Talking Fly short documentary project by filmmaker Steve Olpin, Enjoy!
Check out a pottery film I did a few years back:

Learn Corrugated Pottery From Master Potter John Olsen

Master Potter John Olsen has been making Anasazi replica pottery for longer than I have been alive. He is well known as the master of corrugated pottery. In this video he talks about how he became a potter and teaches how to make authentic Anasazi corrugated pottery from his home in Boulder, Utah.

John often teaches pottery with Kelly Magleby, her workshops are listed here

He usually teaches pottery at the following primitive skills gatherings.
Winter Count –
Rabbitstick –
Fire to Fire –

❤️ Support my channel
Channel membership
Ancient Potters Club

👕 T shirts and other merch –

🛍 Shop for pottery related goodies
Classes, tools and pottery are available at my online store:

📚 Improve your pottery skills
Check out my in-person pottery workshops and online masterclasses to improve your pottery making skills.

⭐️ Social media
Facebook –
Instagram –

📬 Send me mail
Andy Ward PO Box 43601 Tucson, AZ 85733

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

#masterpotter #anasazipottery #primitivepottery

How to Make Primitive Pottery

Follow me as I guide you through the whole process of making primitive pottery, some of my other videos show more details on parts of the process but this video shows the entire process of creating primitive pottery. Please post questions below and I will answer.

#clay #primitiveskills #anasazipottery

To learn more about how to make pottery like the ancients look at my online workshops at

You can purchase a gourd scraper like the one I use in this video

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Anasazi Pottery Firing: 2019 SW Kiln Conference

Cherylene Caver, a ceramic artist from eastern Colorado directed this firing of an Anasazi trench kiln at the 2019 SW Kiln Conference at the Timber Camp Campground near Globe, Arizona on October 5 and 6, 2019.

Learn more about Cherylene at her website

This four stage firing process was first defined in:
Swink, Clint
Limited oxidation Firing of Organic Painted Pottery in Anasazi-Style Trench Kilns. 1993. Pottery Southwest, Vol. 20.

If you are interested in learning to fire this way check out the book "Messages From the High Desert" by Clint Swink. The book can be purchased on Amazon at this link –

The Southwest Kiln Conference is an annual event focused on the art, science and technology of recreating the prehistoric pottery of the American Southwest.

Learn more about the SW Kiln Conference at

#SWKC #anasazipottery

NOTE: This description contains affiliate links that allow you to find the items mentioned in this video and support the channel at no cost to you. While this channel may earn minimal sums when the viewer uses the links, the viewer is in NO WAY obligated to use these links. Thank you for your support!

Anasazi Style Pottery Firing

In this video Kiowa Sage from Primitive Lifeways shows you how to fire Anasazi style pottery. This pottery type is a late prehistoric southwestern style.

First posted by C. Dean Wilson 2013

"Pottery assigned to the Southern Colorado Plateau or Anasazi culture as defined here includes many of the regional traditions long noted for groups described as the Anasazi and more recently as Ancestral Pueblo. The term Southern Colorado Plateau is used here to differentiate these groups from those known to occupy areas in the Northern Colorado Plateau such as that associated with the Fremont culture which covers much of Utah. The Southern Colorado Plateau culture area includes pottery associated with a variety of gray, white, and red ware pottery types long produced over much of Southwest Colorado, Northeast Arizona, Northwest New Mexico, and Southwest Utah. Developments noted for most of the Southern Colorado Plateau or Anasazi culture area most closely conform to sequences of developments defined for the Pecos Classification System which imply relatively similar changes in ceramics and other material culture from the Basketmaker III to the Pueblo III period (Kidder 1927).

Distinct trajectories of development, particularly for the decorated wares, can be used to define different branches of the Anasazi (Wilson in progress). The westernmost branch of the Anasazi reflect the very long sequence of related but diverse organic painted forms associated with the westernmost traditions of the Anasazi including the Tusayan, Little Colorado, Virgin Kayenta, and the organic painted series of the Chuska regional traditions. The north central branch reflects the long production of mineral painted forms, and then a shift to distinct organic painted types during the Pueblo II/Pueblo III transition associated with the Chaco series of the Cibola, the Mesa Verde, some periods and areas of the Upper San Juan, and in part with the Chuska tradition. The southernmost portion of the Colorado Plateau for which earlier sequences parallel that previously described for the north central branches, is later distinguished by the continuation of production of elaborately decorated forms decorated in mineral paint after the late Pueblo II period. The eastern most regions of this culture area are associated with a more conservative tradition of simply decorated organic painted forms that included the southern Upper San Juan and Gallina regions."

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#Anasazi #AnasaziPottery #MakingPottery