Vangie Tafoya

• Award-winning contemporary potter
• Jemez & San Ildefonso Pueblo
• Creates elegant stone-polished redware
• Known for intricate hummingbirds, water serpents, feathers & nature designs

• 2nd Place, Santa Fe Indian Market, 1999
• Best of Show, New Mexico State Fair
• 1st and 2nd place, Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Arts & Crafts Show

Vangie Tafoya (Jemez/San Ildefonso) comes from a distinguished pottery family and is a relative of legendary potter Maria Martinez. She was inspired to carry on the family’s tradition of pottery-making by her grandmother Maria Sanchez Colaque, and has passed on the art to her daughters Brenda Tafoya and Helen Henderson. Vangie Tafoya is known for her elegant stone polished redware that often features intricate sgraffito designs representing hummingbirds, water serpents, feathers and other elements drawn from nature. Her signature on each of her piece’s includes an eagle feather design to pay respect to her clan. She makes her pottery by hand using natural clay and traditional methods.