Preston Duwyenie is renowned for his elegant pottery, which is often highlighted with silver medallions. This jar is made from black clay, and the entire surface is matte. The top has a shifting sand design that is carved into the clay. The manner in which he carves the sand gives it a very realistic appearance. There is a single inset piece of silver that was cast from cuttlefish bone to create the texture of the “shifting sand”. It is then inset into the cla,y and he incises around the shape of the silver. The bottom is signed with Preston’s hallmark, which is a woman carrying a child, and his Hopi name, which means “carried in beauty”. Why the shifting sand designs? Preston says he remembers watching a smooth pebble caught in sand being shifted by the wind, “there was beauty in its isolation within the sea of sand. It was like an island. The endless sands of time, and the fact that people, too are tossed about by the wind. There is always rippling in our lives”.