was then surrounded with cow chips - very dry cow dung - as fuel. The chips were placed carefully in order to leave the vents free. The goal was to prevent any flame from actually touching the pots, hence the protective metal sheets. After covering the kiln with more cow chips, they lit the kindling on all sides to ensure an even distribution of heat. They continued to feed the fire with dry cedar wood until it reached the desired temperature of around 1,200 to 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit, depending on the desired look they intended for the batch of pots. If the fire continued to burn, the pottery would achieve a red-brown color. But in order to make the blackware pottery that Maria was famous for, the fire was smothered with dry, powdered horse dung. By doing this, the amount of oxygen within the kiln was greatly reduced, therefore creating a reduction atmosphere that caused the color of the pots to turn black. After several hours, Martinez shifted the horse dung to extinguish the fire and bury the pots so they could cool slowly. After the pit kiln was cool enough to unload, they carefully removed the pots using a stick if the pots were still hot, or by hand if the pots were cool enough to touch. Decorations Julian Martinez, Maria's husband, began decorating Maria's pots after many trials and errors. "To create his designs, a slurry of clay and water known as slip is created and applied to the already burnished, but yet unfired surface. You cannot polish a design into a matte background, as the stone is not as precise as a brush is." He discovered that painting designs with a guaco juice and clay mixture provided a matte-on-shiny decorative effect. The process involved polishing the background, then matte-painting the designs before firing. In 1918, Julian finished the first of Maria's blackware pots with a matte background and a polished Avanyu design. Many of Julian's decorations were patterns adopted from ancient vessels of the Pueblos. These patterns included birds, road runner tracks, rain, feathers, clouds, mountains, and zigzags or kiva steps. Signatures Maria used variations of her signature on her pots throughout her lifetime. These signatures help date the pieces of art. Maria and Julian's oldest works were all unsigned. The two had no idea that their art would become popular and did not feel it was