Traditional Santa Clara Pueblo Pottery

Clay

Natural pigments

Height: 70 mm

Width: 90 mm

Opening: 16 mm

Handmade and signed by Linda Okhuwapiny of the Santa Clara Tribe at the Puye Cliff Dwellings

Santa Clara has a long history of pottery making and there are more than 200 active potters in the pueblo today. Until the 1920’s, the majority of Santa Clara pottery was undecorated redware, blackware or made of a natural micaceous clay. In the late 1920’s Sarafina Gutierrez Tafoya and her daughter, Margaret Tafoya, developed what is now known as deep-carved blackware. The two women were also instrumental in promoting the “bear claw” as a pueblo signature until today, it is the most recognized Santa Clara symbol. The Tafoyas also bucked the trend of producing smaller and smaller wares by creating some of the largest vessels ever made in the southwest. Click here for the full article courtesy of Eyes on the Pot.