Wisdom and Grace Corn Maiden

She embodies grace and wisdom which underly her compassion.  She was carved by Stafford Chimoni from antler and stands on crushed turquoise on a Picasso marble base.  Her long eyes are inlaid jet and her mouth is inlaid coral.  She wears thirteen turquoise stones on her chest, with two salmon coral inlaid in the center, along with two turquoise earrings.  The fifteen corn kernels are three-dimensional and each one has a turquoise inlaid in the center.  Her shawl is engraved with geometric designs on each side and the bottom, with a total of twenty-four inlaid turquoise. Her tablita (head piece) is detailed with a turquoise at the bottom as well as the back.  Her long eyes are inlaid jet and her mouth is inlaid coral.

Size: 6" H x 2.25" L x 1.75" W

Female corn beings represent all that is good about being a woman: loving, generous, nurturing, kind, and strong with great compassion.  In tribes that traditionally grow corn, most of the stories are the similar.  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.  In Zuni Pueblo, there are three ages of female corn beings: the maiden who wears her hair in the traditional buns on each side, the mother who has one or more babies, and the elder grandmother who wears her shawl over her head. There are dances to honor the female corn beings in many of the Pueblos.  And in other tribes, she is held in a place of great honor.

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.