Nishoni Pottery is a family affair

Nishoni Pottery is a family affair. Their detailed pottery has gone to Italy, England, Sweden and all over the states. The tradition of crafting Navajo etched potteries is being passed from the parents to their children here in Maricopa.

The Nishoni Pottery family includes (left to right) Sabian, Eugenia, Derik and Fabian Johnson.

Fabian and Eugenia Johnson grew up on the Navajo reservation in the Four Corners area of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. Fabian grew up near Gallup, New Mexico, while Eugenia lived near Farmington. They met at San Juan College in Farmington.

Eugenia had been diagnosed with epilepsy at age three and suffered five to six seizures each month. As a child she spent her time involved in music, softball or drawing. Her mother tried to keep her from being too happy or too sad since that seemed to bring on the seizures.

“When Fabian and I met”, smiled Eugenia, “he liked me for the person I was.” They were married several years later.

In 1997 at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix, Eugenia underwent successful brain surgery. She has had no seizures since then. “It was a real miracle,” she explained.

Fabian’s family were silversmiths. “I didn’t become a silversmith because I couldn’t solder,” Johnson laughed.

About 12 years ago, at the urging of Johnson’s sister and her husband, the couple took up pottery painting and etching. The results speak for themselves and demonstrate the artists’ tremendous talents and skills. Many of their completed works are available for viewing on their website.

Navajo etched potteries take a great deal of time, patience and creative talent. The pottery is handmade and unique because the individual potter’s thoughts and feelings are represented on the work itself.

First the clay pot is formed, dried and then sanded. The lines around the pot are hand painted while the pot turns on a wheel. After the paint dries, the designs are hand etched onto the pot’s surface and then fired. One pot can take from three to five days to complete, sometimes even longer.

Fabian Johnson hand painting one of their potteries as it turns on the wheel..

“Our symbols represent life and feelings,” explained Eugenia. “If it’s a rainy day, we might use rain, lightning, clouds with blue or gray backgrounds.” Other symbols include the steps of life, half rainbows, eagle feathers, sagebrush (which is used as a healing aid), arrowheads, rocks and other Native American characters. Four lines represent the four seasons.

Painted colors also represent life on earth. Blue might be clouds, sky or air while green would represent grass, vegetation or the forest. Customers can specify colors.

Some of the Nishoni potteries, including a glazed one in the center.

The pottery making tradition is being passed on to the next generation of Johnsons. Sabian is 11 years old. He has been crafting pottery for a year. In that time he has completed 18 pots. His first work was purchased by a Michigan native who vowed to come back at a later time for a larger pot.

“At first it was kind of hard,” explained Sabian, “but now it’s easier.” His mother added that he has developed more patience and shows considerable artistic talent.

Brother Derik, age eight, is also a potter. He has completed five or six works in the past year.

Eugenia is a Gila River administrative assistant. Fabian is a foreman with a heating and air conditioning firm. The entire family spends two or three weekends a month at art fairs. They usually take 20 pots and, generally, sell all but three. To maintain their inventory is very time-consuming for an already busy family of four.

Sabian and Eugenia Johnson display some of their works at a recent art fair.

The term “Noshoni” is the Navajo equivalent of “Look at me; I’m pretty!” “Our pottery speaks for itself,” explained Fabian. “We put our minds and our labor into the work which represents what we know and see.”

Eugenia recounted a story of a purchase made in Peoria, Arizona, by a daughter for her mother. “She kept saying this one calls out to me,” remembered Eugenia. “It turned out that her mother had seen and wanted that very pot earlier, but she couldn’t afford to buy it.”

Johnson also told about a blind girl who purchased a pot because she could feel the etchings, which included the steps of life, life’s ups and downs, and half rainbows, the symbols of good fortune. “That really touched me,” added Eugenia.

“There is a story behind each piece of pottery,” explained Fabian. “People may be looking for something and find the pottery matches their own personality or feelings.”

Eugenia’s short-term goal is to open a store in Maricopa for their potteries. She would ultimately like to help pass on the pottery making tradition to other Native Americans.

Wherever they are, on the shelf waiting to be painted and etched or in a new owner’s home, the Nishoni pots will be saying, “Look at me”. Truly works of art, they are painstakingly crafted by a talented family in Maricopa. Eugenia expressed it this way, “All our hearts go into our potteries.”