What an Honor

What a great time I had, visiting family at Zuni.I really felt it was time to catch up with all the family news. I stayed with Lena at Blackrock,because her house by the family group of homes was being remodeled. We laughed and told stories and I was introduced to extended family members. Lots of beautiful babies,all the babies get much attention,I really can't remember a crying uncomfortable baby.Just big brown eyes taking in all the activities.
One lazy afternoon as we all sat in Dinah's backyard,we talked about my Aunt Edna, Dinah, Lena and Sandra's mom. I have several of Edna's fetish bowls and I was interested in finding out more about the bowls. Since Sandra helped her mom, I thought she might be the next person to carry the tradition of making the fetish bowls. After a short silence Sandra started by saying no I don't think so because of all the time and work involved with each piece. Well that just increased my interest. I had to ask what work? Please tell me more. Sandra in her very soft voice said well,I would have to grind down the turquoise, to get it the right size,and sometimes the stones didn't want to be crushed. The turquoise has to be very fine. Then comes the washing of the stones and picking out all the discolored ones and odd sizes. Again Sandra said lots of work. Then there is more washing,the turquoise has to be very clean for the adhesive to work. The adhesive was a recipe of ingredients that Aunt Edna had made up, I didn't ask Sandra or Lena if they know the ingredients.I'll leave that as a family secret. All the fetishes on the bowls were carved by Edna. I have an example of one bowl here http://www.agalleryofnations.com/pottery.html I am very honored to have Fetish bowls that my Aunt Edna made. As we sat and chatted about the art work being done by the family I asked who is all carving now. Lena said almost all of the family. The list of carvers is growing and the younger ones are now working on fetishes. The sense of family history and style of carving is being carried on today and can be seen in the work of Debra Gasper,Evalena Boone,Leland Boone,Micheal Weahkee,Peter Gasper Jr. all the old style that Grandfather Teddy Weahkee did in the early 1950s. As the afternoon went on I felt a quiet loneliness of the family that miss their mother and my Aunt Edna. I just wanted to share a little about Zuni
Fetish bowls.