Durand, Anthony

Anthony Durand was a potter from Picuris Pueblo. Born in 1956, he passed away in 2009. He learned the traditional Picuris way to make pottery from his grandmother, Cora Durand, beginning when he was 7 years old.

Traditional Picuris pottery is made with micaceous clay. Micaceous clay, when thick enough with flecks of mica, holds liquids. It can be cooked with and some folks say the best beans they ever had were cooked in a Picuris-made bean pot. The only embellishments on Picuris pottery were sculptural, too.

Cora made utilitarian Picuris pottery and that’s what she taught Anthony to make.

Industrial mining activities at Picuris caused the potters to lose their traditional source of clay. Anthony searched and experimented and finally found a source that would replicate the color and lustre of ancient Picuris pots. After that he became an exhibitor at Santa Fe Indian Market and earned several ribbons for his work.

Anthony shared a booth with his grandmother at the 1995 Micaceous Pottery Artists Convocation at the School for American Research (now the School for Advanced Research).