Linda Tafoya-Sanchez is a granddaughter of noted potter Margaret Tafoya and a daughter of Lee & Betty Tafoya.  She is known for her intricately carved pottery.  The jar has a wide body and a fluted rim. The fluted neck undulates back and forth around the jar and it is slipped with a micaceous clay.  The body of the jar is carved with cloud, lightning, and mesa or mountain designs.  They are deeply carved into the clay.  The jar is highly polished and traditionally fired.  Interestingly, Linda was among the first Santa Clara potters to begin using the mica as a design element after she was given some by her San Juan Pueblo in-laws.  The jar is signed on the bottom, “Linda Tafoya-Sanchez”.

“The clay is a really important part of making the pottery. Listening to family members talk about how they used to get clay with Grandma and Grandpa [Margaret & Alcario Tafoya] and how they would make it an all-day venture. You feel that family connection when you are digging the clay out of the earth. It ties you to your home. There’s no other place you are going to find that kind of clay. You think about how many years people have dug that clay out of the earth, how many years Mother Earth has provided that clay for us.”  Linda Tafoya-Sanchez, Spoken Through Clay