caption death_date other_name nationality ethnicity birth_date alt image article_title name occupation
helen her awatovi star pattern naha in her home decorating a pot in 1993 feather woman american hopi 1922 helen her awatovi star pattern naha in her home decorating a pot in helennaha.jpg helen naha
 helen naha pottery
helen naha

helen naha -lrb- 1922 -- 1993 -rrb- was the matriarch in a family of well known hopi potters .
she was the daughter-in-law of paqua naha -lrb- the first frog woman -rrb- .
helen was married to paqua 's son archie .
she was mostly self-taught , following the style of her mother-in-law and sister-in-law joy navasie -lrb- second frog woman -rrb- .
her designs are often based on fragments found at the awatovi ruins near hopi .
her hallmark style was finely polished , hand-coiled pottery finished in white slip with black and red decorations .
she would often take the extra step to polish the inside of a piece as well as the outside .
she signed her pottery with a feather glyph -lrb- shown in inset -rrb- .
this resulted in her being called `` feather woman '' by many collectors .
both of her daughters , sylvia and rainy -lrb- rainell -rrb- , as well as her granddaughter tyra naha are well known potters .
today , her medium to larger pots typically sell for several thousand dollars .
she has been recognized by the southwestern association for indian arts for her body of work through the creation of the helen naha memorial award - for excellence in traditional hopi pottery .
naha was a member of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints .
