Desert Corn Maiden

Corn Maidens represent everything good about being a woman. Carl Etsate carved this Corn Maiden from Mexican Onyx.  She has inlaid jet eyes, a coral mouth, and turquoise dots inlaid on her body. He carved corn kernals and geometric designs on her body. More about corn maidens below.

Size: 2.25" H x .75" in diameter

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.