Stephanie Tafoya is a 30-year-old great-granddaughter of Margaret Tafoya, a granddaughter of Lee Tafoya, and the daughter of Mel Tafoya. She has learned to make pottery from her aunt, Linda Tafoya-Sanchez.  Each piece is coil-built, carved, stone polished, and traditionally fired.  This piece is part of her series entitled, “Tewa Voices”.   Each piece that is part of this series focuses on Tewa life, family, and culture.  This piece is entitled “Together as One”.  Stephanie said of this piece:

This is an open bowl with dancing moccasins. My favorite part of us dancing is the final song. It’s the last dance before we give blessings and head into the kiva. It’s the only brief moment we are all able to see eachother together in a circle. We’re perfectly in unison and it’s absolutely bittersweet that we made it through this journey together. The taller mocassins represent the women and the shorter ones are the men.  I tried to carve the women’s mocassins with the heels up, as if they are capture mid-step during a dance.

The open bowl has eight carved mocassins.  Each one is deeply carved into the clay and stone-polished.  There is a carved band around the rim and etched lines on the edge.  Each moccasin is stone polished to a high shine.  The matte area is striking in the smooth surface.  The open bowl is signed on the bottom.  Her name in Tewa is “Khung Be”, which means Holly Berry. This is a hallmark she also puts on her pottery.