Joseph Lonewolf Miniatures

The carved vase, left, is by Teresita Naranjo and the two incised jars are by Grace Medicine Flower.

The mirrored vessel, right, was two years in designing, making and finishing. It won the "Best of Show" award at Tanner's Annual All-Indian Invitational Pottery and Painting Show.

All of the vessels below are miniatures from Tanner's Indian Arts, and are made by Joseph Lonewolf. The smallest is 1/2" high.

BEAUTY MAKERS

from page 38 When Richard Spivey talks of "getting a little pot from Tony," he's not referring to marijuana or a pusher named Antonio. His mention of "the medicine flower" isn't about peyote, either.

But he is talking about an absolute addiction, nonetheless. He's hooked, you see, on the sometimes costly habit of buying, selling and collecting craft-art pottery handmade by Southwestern Indians. It's an aesthetic addiction shared by countless Arizonans and hundreds of other collectors around the world.

To Spivey and other addicts, happiness is a $4,000 pot made by Tony Da and inset with gem quality turquoise. Or a bowl made by Grace Medicine Flower in two colors (sienna and black) over intaglio etching and fired only once, and priced from $200 to $1,800.

As a young Anglo in Santa Fe, N.M., Spivey got hooked on native Indian pots when he discovered the finished products of stunning beauty were made with only the most rudimentary tools and no quality controls. He's since become what the museum people of the West call "the most knowledgeable living expert in the field of contemporary Indian pottery and potters."

Says Spivey: "There are five major pot-producing areas: The Hopi Reservation, especially on First Mesa, in Arizona plus Acoma, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso and Zia in New Mexico.

"One could mention such individual potters as Santana Melchor at Santo Domingo and Virginia Romero at Taos in New Mexico, and such tribes as Maricopa and Pima-Papago in Arizona. But quantity is negligible."

HOPI: Pots are slipped either in mellow yellow with orange designs or in white with black designs.

Notable potters include the offspring of the late, great Nampeyo: Fannie, Annie (now also deceased) and Nellie; Fannie's daughters Elva and Leah (who both sign their first names and use Nampeyo as the last name); Annie's daughters, Daisy Hooee and Rachel; Rachel's daughter, Dextra Quotskuyva (who signs variously as Dextra, Dextra Quotskuyva or Dextra Quotskuyva Nampeyo) and Dextra's sisters, Priscilla and Lillian.

Other First Mesa potters are Frog Woman, Feather Woman, Sadie Adams, Emogene Lomakima and Grace Chapella.

And at Old Oraibi on Third Mesa, Elizabeth White is noted for creating new form with corncobs and by pressing the clay from the inside to form relief figures of flute players. Elizabeth uses potter's wheel and kiln as often as she uses the coil method and the traditional bonfire on the ground.

ACOMA: Finest clays and thinnest pots come from here and usually are slipped with white and designed in intricate geometric patterns with black or dark brown mineral paint. Sometimes a red clay slip is also used.

Outstanding potters are Lucy Lewis and her daughter, Emma; Marie Chino and her daughter, Rosemary; Lolita Concho; Jessie Garcia, and Mary Ann Hampton.

SANTA CLARA: Potters here use as many as seven colors on a single pot all clays and all painted on before firing. Incising, carving and intaglio work are design additions.

As with the Hopi family of Nampeyo, there is a viable potterter "dynasty" in Santa Clara Pueblo, too, beginning with the late Serafina Tafoya. Her three children, all important potters, are Camilio Tafoya, Margaret Tafoya and Christine Naranjo. And each of them have children who are important potters.

Camilio's children are Joseph Lonewolf and Grace Medicine Flower. Joseph's daughter, a fourth generation potter, is Apple Blossom (or Rosemary) Speckled Rock.

Margaret's children are Virginia Ebelacker, Mella Youngblood, Tonita Roller and Esther Archulata (latter now living in San Juan Pueblo and fashioning pottery in that area's style).

Christina's daughter is Teresita Naranjo; Teresita's daughter is Stella Chavarria.

ZIA: Potters mix a variety of clays and their slip is a creamier color than that of Acoma potters. Rainbow bands and Zia birds are hallmark designs.

Potters include Sofia Medina, Vincentita Pino and Dominguita Pino.

No discussion of potters could be complete without a mention of Helen Cordero of Cochiti Pueblo, creator of sculptured figures and groups of figures such as Nativity scenes and “The Storyteller and the Children.” Also at Cochiti are skilled bowl and pot makers such as Juanita Arquero, Seferina Ortiz and Frances Suina.

The results obtained by some of these potters often can put to shame the painstaking cloisonne of the ancient Chinese, the miscroscopic mosiac and intaglio of the old Florentine craftsmen, the etching of Czech crystal artisans — or even the mathematical calculations of an electronic computer.

Yet, the potters begin with coils of wet clay mined from areas near their homes. From this they form pots, bowls, jugs or ollas, then the form is slipped with a thinner clay and polished with a stone.

“I've seen Grace Medicine Flower and Blue Corn spend a whole day polishing the wet slip that way, keeping the slip damp with saliva,” Spivey says.

Other notable Santa Clara potters are Margaret and Luther Gutierrez; Pula, Petra, and Lois Gutierrez; Belen Tapia, Helen Shupla, Haungoah, Anita Suazo, Minnie Vigil, Angel Baca, Flora and Madeline Naranjo, Frances Salazar and Legoria Tafoya.

SAN ILDEFONSO: Potters use manure in the firing process to achieve a distinctive black color. Black designs on matte black pots; gunmetal black with no design; and carving, etching, set stones and sophisticated forms are notable for this area.

Also notable here is yet another family tree dripping with famous branches, twigs and sprouts.

Trunk of the tree is the world-renowned Maria and her late husband Julian Martinez.

The pair, who first produced polychrome pots, were asked by archaeologists to reproduce black pottery, such as that found in excavated ruins. After experimentation, they did. That was in 1919 and thus began the stock-in-trade of San Ildefonso potters.

Two of their sons carried on the pottery tradition: One is Adam, who married and collaborated with Santana, who in turn collaborated with Maria herself; the other is the late Popovi Da, who also signed jointly with his mother.

Adam and Santana's daughter is Anita Pino; Anita's daughter is Barbara Gonzales.

Popovi's son is Tony Da.

Other outstanding San Ildefonso potters, many of whom, like Tony Da, no longer produce only the traditional black pottery, include: Blue Corn, Helen Gutierrez, Angelita Sanchez, Isabel Atencio, Margaret Lou Gutierrez, Josephine Vigil, Tse-Pe and Dora, and their daughter, Rose Gonzales.

But artistry — plain arty artistry — is an inherent quality of potters, too, if one considers the numbers of painters in potter's families: Raymond Naha is a descendant of Nampeyo; Dan Nahmingha is the son of Dextra Quotskuyva; Isabel Atencio, who is a branch of Maria and Julian's family tree, is the mother of Gilbert Atencio; Margaret Lou Gutierrez' brother is J. D. Roybal; Legoria Tafoya's sister is Pablita Velarde and her niece is Helen Hardin; Sofia Medina's husband is Rafael Medina . . . et cetera, et cetera.