Native American Santa Clara Bowl, black ware,
deeply carved with pueblo design elements based on avanyu, the water serpent. Signed Carol Velarde.

A vintage Native American pot acquired directly from Carol Velarde in 1992.

Born in 1949, Carol Velarde was born in 1949, the daughter of Teresa Gutierrez, of Santa Clara Pueblo. She and her sisters, Marie Suazo and Doris Tenorio, are potters known for their black carved ware.

This is very traditional in every respect: materials, style and techniques. The family specializes in precisely carved black pottery, often outlining the carved edges with a matte paint finish.

Carol’s specialty is carving miniatures like this one.
5" high by 4 1/2" diameter

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This vintage Native American Santa Clara melon bowl, with red slip, and incised bear paws, by Linda Tafoya Sanchez formerly Oyenque, was acquired from the highly regarded Bien Muir Sandia Tribe Gallery in 1992.

Linda Tafoya was born in 1962, the granddaughter of Margaret Tafoya and daughter of Betty and Lee Tafoya. Linda Tafoya is a potter from Santa Clara Pueblo., with work appearing in markets in 1974. She says she learned to make pottery from her parents and her aunt, Mary Ester Archuleta.

Awards for the work of Linda Tafoya began in 1984 and continue to come her way for years that followed. One of her Best of Division award-winning piece from the 1998 Santa Fe Indian Market was presented to the Prince of Spain.

Linda married Dennis Oyenque of Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo) with whom she had two sons. At that time, she signed her pottery "Linda Tafoya-Oyenque." After divorce from Dennis, she returned to Santa Clara. At Santa Clara she married again and now signs her pieces "Linda Tafoya-Sanchez."

Linda's polish and deeply carved melon design results in a mirror-like polish.
3.5" X 5" #L033

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Vintage Native American pottery | Santa Clara Pueblo red slip bowl with deeply carved traditional designs, by Marie Suazo. Acquired at Santa Clara Pueblo in 1994.

Marie is the daughter of Teresa Gutierrez and granddaughter of Rosita Velarde. She is the sister of several accomplished Santa Clara Pueblo potters: Carol Velarde, Ivan Gutierrez, Doris Tenorio, Earl Gutierrez, and Tony Gutierrez, Jr. Suazo. Marie Suazo has been regularly awarded for her pottery pieces at Santa Fe Indian Market for decades. Her name and work have been featured and recognized in many published and online publications.

Struck by tragedy, this very accomplished potter stopped potting for three years when her husband and creative partner passed on. When she returned to clay, she has had to do the work of two by herself and has done so with distinction. Marie Suazo is known for deeply carved red pots, as shown here, and black pots in the finest tradition of Santa Clara Pueblo pottery.
2" X 4" #P208

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Native American Santa Clara Pueblo miniature pot, black slip with fine incised avanyu and brown slip at the lip. It was acquired at IPCC in Albuquerque in 1995.

Geri Naranjo was born in 1952. She has been producing traditional pottery since 1975. Learning from her mother, Ursalita Naranjo, Geri began working with clay in 1962

Geri first entered shows in 1980 and has earned show awards between 1980 and 1998, including Best of Division three years in a row at Santa Fe Indian Market. Geri is best known for her miniature black pots using sgraffito techniques. Unfortunately, Geri suffered a stroke in 1998 and no longer makes her miniatures.
1 3/4" x 1 1/4" #P438

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Native American Santa Clara Pueblo miniature wedding vase, redware, with twisted handle and deeply incised symbols, by Carole Velarde.

Born in 1949, Carol Velarde is an acknowledged expert in small pots. She is the daughter of Teresa Gutierrez, and her sisters, Marie Suazo and Doris Tenorio, are potters. They are known for their pottery with deeply carved designs. The family specializes in precisely executed black pottery and red pottery, often outlining the carved edges with a matte paint finish.
4.5" x 2.5" #PC33

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Native American Santa Clara jar, with buffalo-handled lid, in light brown slip with dark brown slip area presenting sgraffito buffalo design. Potters Tony and Patty Padilla signed it and titled it "Calling the last buffalo". Acquired in 2000 at Wheelwright Museum’s Case Trading Post.

Background information about Tony Padilla is hard to find. We do know that his creative partner and spouse, Patricia Padilla is deceased. She had a very positive career in health and nursing, having obtained a bachelor’s degree in Nursing from the University of New Mexico and serving for decades in the Indian Health Service, US Public Health Service, in addition to her accomplishments with her husband as a Santa Clara potter.
5 1/4" x 4", #PE70

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Native American Santa Clara Pueblo bowl, miniature, black with brown-fired slip around top half. Sgraffito of kokopelli and avanyu surrounding.

Candelaria Suazo was born in the 1950s to Santa Clara Pueblo. Her family, which is filled with talented pottery makers, influenced her interest and skill in pottery making. She became an active potter in the late 1980s. Her specialty became sgraffito, a technique of scratching through a top layer of one color of slip to reveal the color that lies beneath it. This allows the potter to reveal different colors in a single firing.

Candelaria collects clay from deposits within the pueblo. Impurities are removed to temper the clay to the desired level of plasticity and durability. Next comes the creation of clay coils that will be used to shape the final pot that the potter has envisioned. The rough pot is allowed to dry in the open air. It is polished with a special stone to smooth the evolving pot. Red slip of liquified clay is applied. Then the potter, in this case, Candelaria, carves designs into the slip, using sgraffito implements to reveal the color of the fundamental clay.

Firing is the final step in Candelaria’s process. The same sources of clay are the base of both red ware and black ware. Candelaria uses reduction and oxidizing in a single firing. These two processes result in the same clay emerging as black or red once the etching is revealed. Since the designs already have been etched into the clay surfaces, the sgraffito done by Candelaria determines what colors emerge in what parts of the design.

The foregoing information about Candelaria and her potting processes has been sourced in part from material published by Morningstar Gallery.
1.75" x 2" #Pi39

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Native American Santa Clara Pueblo Sophie Cata pot with polished black slip and incised bear paw design on one side.

Sophie Cato “Eagle Feather Basket” was born in 1957, the daughter of Frances Naranjo Salazar of Santa Clara Pueblo and granddaughter of Flora Naranjo. These wise and talented family members taught Sophie how to pot in the Santa Clara tradtions. By the age of 6 she was forming pots.

Sophie creates hand-coiled pots from clay and sand (temper) collected on the Santa Clara Pueblo. This detailed attention to the base material results in some natural imperfections. After the basic pot is dried in open air, Sophie draws her designs on it, following with carving the out the incised areas.

The next step is sanding for a smooth surface and a refined symmetry. A clay slip is applied, and the pot is polished using a polishing stone. The pot is fired in an open outdoor kiln, as those she follows did years ago., reaching temperatures of 800 Fahrenheit. Animal dung is added to the fire to turn the surface black if that is the desired finish.

Among her favorite designs, according to Sophie, are bear paws, as shown in this example of her beautiful work. It is signed: “Sophie Cata, Santa Clara Pueblo.”
3 1/2" x 4" #PJ47

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Native American Santa Clara Pueblo pottery,
turtle by J.A. Gutierrez, buff-colored with
incised sgraffito carapace and turquoise studs.

J. A. (Julie A.) Gutierrez was born in 1965. Her parents were Victoria and Celestino Gutierrez of Santa Clara Pueblo. Julie embarked on her career in pottery making, inspired by her mother when she was 12.

Encouraged by her sisters, Effie Garcia and Sally M. Gutierrez, she has established a signature style of swirling sgraffito patterns that are floral or reminiscent of spider’s webs.

This artistry is applied, often with inlay of turquoise stones, in her red ware and black ware figures from nature.

Julie’s subject matter and engraved patterns are almost certain indicators of her work. This is helpful when one encounters the occasional piece, such as this example, that is released unsigned.
4" x 5" #PK14

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Native American Santa Clara Pueblo pot,
blackware with deeply incised kiva step design. by Ethel Gutierrez Yazza

Ethel “Turquoise Rock” Gutierrez-Yazza was born in 1959 into the Santa Clara Pueblo. Ethel first ventured into the wonders of clay when she was 5 years old. To learn how to hand coil, a fundamental aspect of traditional Santa Clara black pottery, among others passed through generation after generation took a long time. The process was motivated to some degree by the awareness that cultivating these skills could provide a comfortable living in the years to come.

Ethel’s specialty is stone-polished black Santa Clara Pueblo pottery emanating from clay collected within her Santa Clara Pueblo. The clay is soaked to make it workable, then mixed with volcanic ash and sand to give it plasticity and resistance to cracking when dried. Only then is the clay coiled to create the pottery walls.

After the pottery is shaped into the object she is working toward, Ethel deeply carves her work with symbols of special significance to Santa Clara Puebloans. These include serpents, kiva steps, feathers, and ripples of water.

Ethel signs her pottery as: Ethel Yazza, Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico.
2.5"H x 3" #PK17

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Native American Santa Clara Pueblo oval seed pot, red incised with buff sgraffito flowers and turquoise studs. In the inimitable style of Julie A. Gutierrez.

Julie Gutierrez was born into the Santa Clara Pueblo in 1965. Urged on by her mother, Victoria Gutierrez, whenJulie was 12, she was learned the fundamentals of working with natural clays and pigments. Her sisters, Effie Garcia and Sally M. Gutierrez joined in supporting her learning process.

Julie specializes in traditional handmade Santa Clara pottery with a contemporary style that makes her art with easy to identify. She etches her pots with flowers and dots them with turquoise stones to define each rosette.
4" high. #PK23

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Native American Santa Clara Pueblo pottery figure of woman cradling a lamb in her lap, by Wayne Snowbird, in traditional Santa Clara black-on-black. We acquired this work of pottery art while visiting Wayne Snowbird at his Santa Clara studio. Admittedly, this is a bit of step beyond storytellers, but it has many similar cultural characteristics.

Here the woman is grooming a lamb, a source of sustenance and clothing for pueblo people for centuries. In its own way, it tells the same kind of story to its viewers that they would receive from being included in the pottery portrayal. And it is a striking work of pottery art by a superb artist.

As an aside, we first met Wayne Snowbird under the portal at the Governor’s Place in Santa Fe. The piece’s we saw there knocked us out. So, we arranged to meet with Wayne at his studio in the Santa Clara Pueblo, not far from Espanola, NM. During that visit we acquired four of his pieces. One has already been sold. Another one was damaged in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian and lays broken on a shelf in our storage area. The third and fourth are still available for purchase. This is one of them.
6 1/2" tall, 3" deep/wide #PL63

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An impressive work of pottery art by Wayne Snowbird Shields of Santa Clara Pueblo. Traditional Santa Clara black-on-black presentation of a grandfather figure holding a dreamcatcher net with a turquoise nugget centered in its web.

Admittedly, not a classical storyteller, but in its own way an extension of the same cultural tradition, since the grandfather is a recognized vehicle for wisdom and historical knowledge.

We first met Wayne Snowbird under the portal of the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, NM. His work immediately captured our attention. Thus, commenced a conversation that extended for years.

In 2004, we visited his Santa Clara Pueblo studio, when we acquired this piece and several others directly from Wayne. All of them characteristically present with featureless faces, a reflection of Wayne’s spiritual approach to making his pottery figures, which represent ideas larger than any individual. They all also share the subtle power of a master artist whose skill, sensitivity, adherence to tradition and creativity are instantly recognizable.

This grandfather figure is one two still in our inventory and available for purchase. Another one of the four was almost instantly sold. The fourth, sadly, was broken during the preparation for Hurrican Ian when we moved treasure to levels above the anticipated flood surge. He now lays in two pieces in our storage area.
10” tall #PL65

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An impressive eagle head emerges from the rim of the Santa Clara Pueblo pot by Martha Mirabel. It is 6 1/2” tall by 5 1/2” from eagle’s beak to the back rim. Acquired from the artist at Santa Fe Indian Market in 2006. Signed by the artist.

Martha Mirabal was born into Santa Clara Pueblo in 1946. She was the daughter of Maria I. Naranjo of Santa Clara Pueblo. As a potter, Maria was known for her highly polished black slip figurines.

Martha married a Taos Pueblo man with the surname Mirabel, and moved to Taos to live. We acquired this fabulous bowl at Santa Fe Indian Market in 2006.

At the time, we were somewhat puzzled that it was purchased at the booth of a Taos artist and, although Martha was adamant that she was Santa Clara, she did not add Santa Clara Pueblo to her signature. We think we now know how all this came about, but it was more than 15 years ago.

And it has not affected the superlative beauty and powerful visual impact of the pot.

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Superb sgraffito presenting sequential turtles by Santa Clara native Debra Duwyenie dramatizes the bronze micaceous clay from which this seed pot as formed. Debra is the spouse of Hopi pottery artist, Preston Duwyenie.

Debra Duwyenie was born in 1955 into the Oak Clan and a member of the Winter Moiety. She learned most of her pottery making techniques and processes from her mother, Genevieve Tafoya. Debra has been applying that knowledge to making pottery since 1979.

Debra worked with Harvey Chavarria until 1991, signing their pots, "Debra Harvey". After Harvey’s death, she lost interest in making pottery for the most part.

When Debra met Hopi potter Preston Duwyenie while working at the Institute for American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, her interest in making pottery returned. Now married, Preston and Debra collaborate on some pieces. But they both mainly work on her own. Her favorite sgraffito designs include hummingbirds, quails, turtles and fish.

Debra signs her work with her name, Debra, although she has added Preston's "Carried in Beauty" hallmark occasionally.
2 1/2" x 2 3/4" diameter

Please Note: For a limited time, our normal fee for packing and shipping this work of pottery art within the 48 mainland United States will be absorbed by Native-PotteryLink, resulting in FREE SHIPPING to any qualifying address. Shipping to other destinations may be arranged by emailing Sanibelart@gmail.com.

Visit Additional Info to see Debra Duwyennie's seed pot in 360 degree rotation.