Mexican Onyx Corn Maiden

Jon Quam carved this corn maiden from Mexican onyx.  She is wearing the traditional maiden buns on each side of her head and has two carved feathers and a dot of turquoise where her part would be.  She has inlaid jet eyes and a turquoise mouth.  She is holding a pot that has turquoise and lapis chips inside which could represent corn.  There is a diamond shaped lapis on her skirt in the front, and a jet diamond on the back.  It has geometric designs carved into the back.  It is signed "Jon Quam" on the bottom.

Size: 3" H x 1,375" L x 1" W

Corn maidens represent everything good about being a woman: strong, kind, compassionate, nurturing, and powerful.  There are many Indigenous stories about how corn was brought to the people at a time when there was hunger, and how a sacred, sometimes other worldly, female being brought them corn.  Corn maidens come with a card detailing the meaning, the carver, and the material they are carved from.

Traditionally, Zuni carvings are symbolically fed cornmeal.   Each Zuni fetish comes in a box with a descriptive card and a tiny bit of corn meal to tide them over until they reach you.