Navajo Mud Toy by Elsie Benally

A Mud Toy by Navajo artist Elsie Benally, (1928 - 2009) featuring a Navajo ceremonial dancer with feathered headdress, and painted hide kilt, conch belt, and red boots. This was made by Benally at the end of her career, when she was in her 80s. Clay and paint, 2 ½ x 6 ¼ x 1 ⅞ inches.

Mud Toys, sunbaked clay figures decorated with paint, fabric scraps, and wool, are an art form revived in the 1980s in Farmington New Mexico, on the edge of the Navajo Reservation.