What is sage clay? I have what appears to be a statue of a Native American woman, and it is marked this way.?

Question

The color of the statue is an offwhite background with swirling red throughout it. The woman is wearing a headband, braids and carrying what appears to be a round object with two feathers on it. The artist's name seems to be G. Green.

Answer 1

i checked for an artist named G Green but so far have been unsuccessful which does not mean a whole lot. However looking for sage clay, my suspicion was it had to do with a type of clay rather than sage being added to it. If sage were added to the clay, when it would be fired the sage would have burned out. Spiritual aspects, always possible but probably would not be written on the pottery. However i did find sage clay listed in Montana. So perhaps your sculptor worked with Montana clays. This is a large guess on my part. Red in clay products is usually indicative of iron or other colorants added. Sometimes copper will flash coppery red in a glaze with a lot of oxygen present. There are some facts that would be helpful in your description, such as where did you acquire this, does it appear to be very old, what is the style of the woman, such as does she have a lot of costume detail, emphasis on various areas of the body, glazed etc. Again the Montana clay is just a big guess but could be a starting point for you.

Answer 2

You'd say that it is clay mixed with sage right? It is.
It probably is used because of it's.. how should I put this.. mystical properties.

I would suspect this statue to represent a grounding ceremony although native American's would probably call it differently.

But then again I could be completely wrong and it refers to the color of the clay.