Artists like Alfred Aguilar, a retired federal employee who has been making pottery for 30 years, may invite you into their shops to peruse their wares. This pottery is fashioned by hand without the aid of a potter's wheel, using red clay dug and collected from local deposits. The pottery's black color is derived from its unique firing process. The raw pottery is placed in an outdoor kiln and fired with cakes of dried manure laid over the pieces at the proper time. This process produces carbon smoke that causes the pottery design to turn black.
Finished pieces vary in price, and bargaining at the pueblo seems to be acceptable.
However, unless you are an expert on Native American pottery, it's a good idea to stop by the nearby Babbitt's Trading Post to compare prices and quality on a good selection of Native American pottery from local artists. The trading post is located on private property just outside the pueblo, and is owned by the Babbitt family, which has been in the trading post business since 1862. Back when his great-grandfather started their first trading post in Arizona, people brought furs and handmade items to trade for such goods as coffee, pots and pans. But here we have evolved to provide items the Indians need for ceremonial purposes, like jewelry, moccasins, dance leggings, ladies dresses, furs and pelts. Formerly, they would have made these themselves or traded among themselves for them.