Some Tizon Brown Ware of the Peninsular Ranges of Southern California is naturally micaceous.  The Paipai Potters of northern Baja have revived this tradition for commercial market in recent decades and are documented to add crushed mica as a decorative enhancement.  

Jerry Schaefer
 
ASM Affiliates, Inc.
2034 Corte Del Nogal
Carlsbad, CA 92011
760-804-5757 (office)
760-804-5755 (fax)
 
 


-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Allen
Dart
Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 9:59 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Mica Temper?


Jicarilla Apache and Pueblo Indians (especially Taos and Picuris Pueblos)
of the northern Rio Grande region have been making micaceous pottery for
at least five hundred years. Many examples have a high golden sheen on the
surface.

I've heard that a good source on northern New Mexico micaceous pottery is
"All that Glitters: : The Emergence of Native American Micaceous Art
Pottery in Northern New Mexico" by Duane Anderson (1999, SAR Press, Santa
Fe). Anderson is an anthropologist specializing in precontact and historic
period cultures of the American Southwest and Midwest.

Do a Google web and/or images search for these strings:

new mexico taos micaceous pottery

duane anderson all glitters


Allen Dart, RPA, Executive Director
Old Pueblo Archaeology Center
PO Box 40577
Tucson AZ  85717-0577   USA
    520-798-1201 office, 520-798-1966 fax
    Email: [log in to unmask]
    URL: www.oldpueblo.org
------------------------------------------------------------

On Wed, July 1, 2009 6:43 am, Megan Springate wrote:
> Forwarded from the Ceramics-L list; I thought perhaps someone here might
have some thoughts. Please include Christian Gates on your reply
([log in to unmask])
>
> --Megan Springate
>
> ---------------------------- Original Message
----------------------------
> Subject: Mica Temper
> From:    "Christian Gates" <[log in to unmask]>
> Date:    Wed, July 1, 2009 9:26 am
> To:      [log in to unmask]
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Some colleagues from Montreal have found an assemblage of what seems to
be
> Native American ceramics heavily tempered with mica: mica fragments are
large, numerous and nearly as important as the clay itself. The pottery
fragments are very hard and they break more like European ceramics than
Native American ceramics. The context is a French settlement from the
XVIIth Century.
>
> Is anyone familiar with such pottery? Can anyone provide me with similar
examples of Native American or European ceramics heavily tempered with mica?
>
> Thank you
>
> Christian Gates St-Pierre
> Archaeologist, PhD
> Ethnoscop inc.
> Montreal, Quebec, Canada
>
>
>       Découvrez les photos les plus intéressantes du jour.
> http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
>