After mastering salient Western ceramic techniques and tools, Winnie Owens-Hart traveled to Africa and visited Ipetumodu, a village of women ceramists in Nigeria. Later, in 1979, she returned to the village for a year to study with the women and learn the indigenous Yoruba techniques of hand built wares. Pottery making is limited to women in Yorubaland. The pots they make are among the few percussion instruments available to women, who are excluded from playing in the elaborate drum ensemble conceptualized in John Biggers's Drummers of Ede (see museum exhibit).

Twice combines elements of Yoruba hand-built pottery with Ife naturalism. The base of the work starts as an Ipetumodu hand-built pot and gradually flows into a vivid self-portrait, which in its calmness recalls naturalistic Ife terracotta heads. The reptile motif on the cheek recalls Yoruba pottery decoration while also suggesting a Ghanaian Andinkra symbol of two crocodiles sharing the same body.