This open bowl by Margaret Tafoya is from the 1980’s.  The bowl has a slight shoulder and short neck.  It is a very unusual piece as it is red and tan. The exterior is polished red while the interior is polished tan.  The tan coloration is created with water, so it is always challenging to polish and create a shine.  Margaret revived this red and tan style in the late 1960s when she remembered how it was done at Ohkay Owingeh (San Juan Pueblo) from her youth. Today, there are only a few potters who are able to polish tan with such a high shine.  For Margaret, she did very few red and tan pieces, and they are always on very traditional forms.  Traditionally, potters would polish the inside of the bowls before firing so that they would be usable.  However, over time this practice decreased as there was a great chance that it would crack in drying or polishing.  The added risk comes from putting all the wet slip on the inside of the bowl and hoping that it doesn’t cause cracks in the exterior.  However, the risk is often worth it as the polished interior of the bowl creates a striking appearance.  It is signed on the bottom in the clay, “Margaret Tafoya”.  It is in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, restoration or repair.

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Tafoya, Margaret (1904-2001)

Margaret Tafoya

Margaret Tafoya is a daughter of noted potter Sara Fina Tafoya and a sister of Christina Naranjo and Camilio Tafoya.  She is the matriarch of a family of renowned potters, each of whom created their distinctive styles.  Margaret Tafoya had twelve children, eight of whom became potters.  They include Virginia Ebelacker, Lee Tafoya, Toni Roller, LuAnn Tafoya, Mela Youngblood, Jennie Trammel, Mary Ester Archuleta, and Shirley Tafoya.  Her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren carry on the pottery-making tradition today. Margaret Tafoya was a guardian of traditional pottery-making methods and techniques.  She created large vessels with stone polished surfaces.  Her carving was done before the piece was polished.  She produced her work from the 1920s through the 1980s.  Margaret Tafoya won numerous awards throughout her career, including Best of Show at Santa Fe Indian Market in 1979 and 1980.  She was also awarded the Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1984.

The book, "Born of Fire," follows her life and art over many decades.  It is also the only book to identify her pottery by the decade produced using the variations in her signature.  This book is the first complete biography of Margaret Tafoya's life.  It is divided into decades, giving the reader a deeper understanding of her life and pottery over nearly 100 years.  There are new biographies on Virginia Ebelacker, Richard Ebelacker, Lee Tafoya, Linda Tafoya, Jennie Trammel, Mela Youngblood, Nathan Youngblood, Nancy Youngblood, Toni Roller, Jeff Roller, LuAnn Tafoya, Daryl Whitegeese, Mary Ester Archuleta, and Shirley Tafoya.  The photography of the pottery in this book is exceptional.  Throughout the book, personal narratives by family members and family photographs create a wonderful sense of her humanity and artistic accomplishments.

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