Yvonne Lucas learned to make pottery from her husband, Steve Lucas, and his aunt, Dextra Qutoskuyva.  She is one of the few Laguna potters who use all traditional materials and traditionally fires their pottery.  This is an early piece of her pottery using Hopi clay. The plate is polished on the front and back.  The front is painted with a complex butterfly design.  The imagery on the wings has Laguna plant, checkerboard, and geometric imagery.  It is painted with bee-weed and highlighted with red and white clay.  The plate is thin-walled and it was traditionally fired. There is just a slight bit of a blush from the firing.  The piece is signed, “Y. Lucas”.  It is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration or repair.

Yvonne has said of her pottery art:

“Am I a Laguna revivalist? I don’t think of myself as a revivalist. Nobody taught me from Laguna. My only tie is Evelyn Cheromiah. I’ve researched by looking at books and taking pictures of historic pots in museums. I pull different designs from the historic pots or just from my imagination. Sometimes, when I look at my pottery, I think, “I can’t believe I made this.”  Yvonne Lucas, Spoken Through Clay

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Lucas, Yvonne (b. 1959)

Yvonne Lucas

Yvonne Lucas continues to create her own path in reviving historic Laguna Pottery. She is married to Steve Lucas, and learned to make pottery from him and his aunt, Dextra Quotskuyva Nampeyo. Yvonne is one of the only potters from Laguna still firing traditionally, and the color variations are stunning, with almost a pinkish, meringue-like cast to areas of the white. She has won numerous awards for her work and her pieces can be found in museums around the country.  Yvonne uses the traditional hand coil thin shelled pottery learned from Dextra, hand polishes, traditional colors, paint, and design.