Santa Clara Pottery / San Ildefonso Pottery

Santa Clara / San Ildefonso Pueblo

Pueblo Pottery Maine presents both traditional and contemporary pottery by Santa Clara and San Ildefonso artists including Mary Cain, Mida Tafoya, Tina Diaz, Sammy Naranjo, Stella Chavarria, Victor and Naomi Eckleberry, Bernice Naranjo, Barbara Martinez, Martin Moquino, Corn Moquino, Denise Chavarria, Forrest Naranjo, Ron Suazo, Dusty Naranjo, Eric Sunbird Fender, Lois Gutierrez, Alice Martinez, Sharon Naranjo Garcia, Martha Appleleaf, Madeline & Adrian Naranjo, Linda Cain, Marilyn Martinez, Glenda Naranjo, Eugene Gutierrez, Gwen Tafoya, Goldenrod, Earlene Youngbird Tafoya, Anna Archuleta, Ethel Vigil, Chris Martinez, Sherry Tafoya and Kevin Naranjo.

Gwen Tofoya works with sgraffito blackware bowls and jars and her work is absolutely stunning. She is the granddaughter of Severa Tafoya and Cleto Tafoya; daughter of Mary Agnes & Mosiminio Tafoya. Gwen is best know for her extensive floral sgraffito designs and sculptured rims. She has won several awards for her work including Best Of Show, First and Second Place at the Inter-tribal Ceremonial in Gallup, New Mexico; the Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Arts & Crafts Show; and the New Mexico State Fair.

The pot (top, left) is a fine incised redware pot in Gwen's favorite motif of hummingbirds and butterflies among roses. It measures 3.5 inches tall by 4.5inches wide. Gwen Tafoya has caught up with and surpassed many of today's best sgraffito pottery artists. Your price $230 ~ Item #SC332.

The pot at right is the same motif as the pot at top. Turquoise stones have been used as the hummingbird eyes and mother of pearl for the butterflies. These pieces are very labor intensive and require a great deal of experience and expertise to create. This pot measures 3.25 inches tall by 4.75 inches wide. Your price $240 ~ Item #SC333

The pot at bottom, left, has the unique carved mouth that Gwen does so well making this pot all the more unique. It measures 4.5 inches tall by 5 inches wide. Your price $425 ~ Item #SC363. Click here to see an enlargement.

Gwen's work continues to become increasingly refined with greater detail and design flow making her sgraffito work among the best. Her work is highly valued and widely collected and is included in Dr. Gregory Schaaf's book "Southern Pueblo Pottery: 2,000 Artist Biographies" and in "Contemporary Pueblo and Navajo Pottery" by Berger and Schiffer.

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Anita Louise Suazo has been an active potter since 1955 working on carved redware, blackware, carved two-tone and back on black pottery. She is the daughter of Jose Nerio Suazo and noted potter Belen Tapia (1914-1999). Anita’s mother Belen was one of the innovators of finely crafted polychrome redwares. She was a first cousin to Margaret Tafoya.

Growing up in a family of traditional potters, Anita began learning Santa Clara pottery techniques as a child from her mother. She works with her husband Joseph who helps her dig clay from the soil near Santa Clara. Her pots are made using the traditional, free hand coiling technique, polishing stones and native clays. Anita makes carved redware and blackware, polychrome redware, black melon pots and carved two-tone black on black pottery. She carves or decorates her pots with water serpents, rain clouds, kiva steps, feathers and other prehistoric stylized designs.

Anita is recognized as a master potter. Since 1979, she has consistently won awards at the Santa Fe Indian Market and the Eight Northern Pueblos Indian Arts and Crafts Shows. In 1985, she participated in the Sid Deusch Gallery show in New York with Margaret Tafoya and 42 other Santa Clara potters. In 1986 she received the Jack Hoover Memorial Award for excellence in Santa Clara pottery. She has taught workshops and given demonstrations on traditional Native American pottery techniques at the University of New Mexico and the University of California at Davis. Her pottery can be found in collections of the Heard Museum in Phoenix, the Smithsonian Institution, the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos, the Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe, and in collections around the world. This carved two-tone pot features bear and imprinted bear claws in black and brownware. It measures 4 inches tall by 3.5 inches wide and was acquired from a private collection - perfect condition. Please click here to see an enlargement. Your price $425 ~ Item #SC349.

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At right is an incised blackware pot by Goldenrod that is clearly the creation of an inspired spirit. These mustangs gallop on a terrain that rises and falls, startling a flock of quail. What captures the eye most on this piece is the etching that creates a pinto look on one of the mustangs. The polish is the deepest and the incising outstanding. Please click here to see an enlargement of this true museum piece. This pot is 3.25 inches tall by 4 inches wide. Your price $995 ~ Item #SC346 (A sale price from its $1,350 list price)

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Camille Moquino is a talented young potter who was taught to pot by her grandmother, the late Frances Salazar, and her mother, Yolanda Velarde. Frances Salazar inspired three of her daughters to pot: Elaine Salazar, Angela Salazar and Yolanda Velarde. Camille is the first of her granddaughters to pot seriously. Camille states that she has been potting since the age of 7. She has exhibited at the Eight Northern Pueblos Indian Arts and Crafts Shows, the Santa Fe Indian Market and the Rio Grande Arts and Crafts Show in Arizona. This handsomely carved turtle measures 5 inches long by 3.5 inches wide. It appears in Dr. Gregory Schaaf's book "Southern Pueblo Pottery: 2000 Artist Biographies" on page VII. Your price $225 ~ Item #SC348.

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Judy Tafoya has been an active potter since 1974 working with carved redware and blackware. She was encouraged to make pottery by her grandmother Christina Naranjo and sister Sharon Garcia. Judy usually collaborated with her husband Lincoln who gathers and prepares the clay. Judy has taken awards and exhibited at venues throughout the West including the Intertribal Indian Ceremonial, New Mexico State Fair, Dallas Indian Market (TX), Mesa Verde Indian Art Show (CO), Indian Art Northwest (OR), Red Earth Indian Market (OK), Jemez Red Rocks Arts & Crafts Show (NM) and the Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Arts & Crafts Show.

Her work is included in Gregory Schaaf's "Pueblo Indian Pottery: 750 Artist Biographies"; "Fourteen Families in Pueblo Pottery" by Dillingham; Lillian Peaster’s "Pueblo Pottery Families", “Southwestern Pottery: Anasazi to Zuni” by Hayes & Blom, Indian Market Magazine and American Indian Art Magazine.

This is a beautifully polished and carved pot with superb shape. It reflects her refined style as she follows in the footsteps of her great-grandmother Margaret Tafoya and grandmother Christina Naranjo. It measures 5 inches tall by 6 inches wide. Your price $750 ~ Item #SC351. Click here to see an enlargement.

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Janel Big Crow is the daughter of Earlene Youngbird Tafoya of Santa Clara Pueblo and like her mother she works with buff orange and white on red slips to produce some very fine painting on red ware seed pots, jars and bowls.

The pot at top, left, measure 3 inches tall by 4 inches wide. Your price $170 ~ Item #SC306. Click here to see an enlargement. SOLD

Janel's polychrome red ware pots are complex compositions often balancing three design bands such as an Avanyu, feathers in a row, and then a third of a more untraditional creation. She is an excellent pottery painter. Janel's pots have wonderful shape and a very fine, high quality polishing. Her work is also very moderately priced for the quality, a fact we attribute to the fact that she isn't really well-known - yet!

The pot at bottom, left, measures 3 inches tall by 4 inches wide. Your price $170 ~ Item #SC305. Click here to see an enlargement.

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