This book combines extensive research with interviews granted by three Santa Clara potters. During the interviews, the author recorded and photographed each step -- from clay pit to market -- in the making of contemporary Santa Clara pottery. Collecting and preparing the clay, making slips and paints, modelling various kinds of vessels, sanding, smoothing, slipping, polishing, decorating, firing -- all are described and illustrated so thoroughly that the reader can experiment with the Santa Clara techniques himself if he wishes.

In 1974 Seven Families in Pueblo Pottery was published to accompany an exhibit at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology: twenty years later there are some 80,000 copies in print. Like Seven Families, this updated and greatly enlarged version by Rick Dillingham, who curated the original exhibition, includes portraits of the potters, color photographs of their work, and a statement by each potter about the work of his or her family. In addition to the original seven--the Chino and Lewis families (Acoma Pueblo), the Nampeyos (Hopi), the Guteirrez and Tafoya families (Santa Clara), and the Gonzales and Martinez families (San Ildefonso)--the author had added the Chapellas and the Navasies (Hopi-Tewa), the Chavarrias (Santa Clara), the Herrera family (Choti), the Medina family (Zia), and the Tenorio-Pacheco and the Melchor families (Santo Domingo). Because the craft of pottery is handed down from generation to generation among the Pueblo Indians, this extended look at multiple generations provides a fascinating and personal glimpse into how the craft has developed. Also evident are the differences of opinion among the artists about the future of Pueblo pottery and the importance of following tradition. A new generation of potters has come of age since the publication of Seven Families. The addition of their talents, along with an ever-growing interest in Native American pottery, make this book a welcome addition to the literature on the Southwest.

"Galleries and shops across the United States are filled with American Indian art. Especially popular is the striking pottery handmade by the Pueblo Indians of the Southwest. Talking with the Clay tells the story of this pottery from the uniquely personal view of the potters themselves. Stephen Trimble interviewed sixty artisans in the pottery-making Pueblo villages, from Taos, New Mexico, to the Hopi reservation in Arizona. Their eloquence fills this book. They speak of 'picking clay' as they would pick flowers, and of the enormous amount of work (fully half their time) necessary to prepare the clay for building their pots. Coil by coil they create jars, bowls, and figurines, and then sand, polish, and paint them. Firing is done outside in a dung-fueled 'kiln' built from scratch for each firing. Trimble shows how Pueblo pottery embodies all the beliefs and values that are central to Pueblo culture. Yet what defines a Pueblo pot is not strictly a matter of tradition, for, as Grace Medicine Flower says of her Santa Clara miniatures, 'Now they call this contemporary; years from now they may call it traditional.' Instead, a Pueblo pot is defined more than anything by the way it feels, and this book captures that feeling in both words and photographs. Talking with the Clay is a joyous, fascinating, and moving book filled with information and insight." -- Back cover

Margaret Tafoya's paramount place in the evolution of Tewa Pueblo pottery in Santa Clara, New Mexico, includes a history of the Pueblo people, Margaret Tafoya's life, Santa Clara pottery-making techniques, and the Tafoya family and descendants. She has adhered to the traditions of her pueblo, and demonstrates the very best in Tewa Pueblo pottery.

Members of a Tewa Indian family living in Santa Clara Pueblo in New Mexico follow the ages-old traditions of their people as they create various objects of clay.

A survey of photographers and photography of the American Southwest from 1870-1970. Includes Ansel Adams, Eliot Porter, Paul Strand, Edward Weston, and Laura Gilpin.

This environmentally charged and no-holds barred survey of nuclear culture in Nevada is illustrated with "Atomic Pop" images of the nuclear era.

As a companion volume to Nativities of the World, this book features a collection of photos of one-of-a-kind nativities from the American Southwest, including many made by native Pueblo, Navajo and Tohono O'odham artists and artisans, as well as others based in the traditions of the other two dominant cultures of the Southwest: Spanish and Anglo. Nativity collectors from around the world will be thrilled to see these examples, which are made from both traditional and nontraditional materials, many of which have never before appeared in print. SUSAH TOPP WEBER has owned and operated Susan's Christmas Shop in Santa Fe for more than thirty-five years. She has a prized collection of nativities, and has sold nativities at her shop since 1978. She is the author of Christmas in Santa Fe and Nativities of the World.

With step-by-step photographs and explanations, Toni Roller tells how traditional Santa Clara Pueblo pottery from New Mexico is made.