Ami, Dorothy

Dorothy Ami was born into the Hopi-Tewa Tobacco clan in December 1967. She grew up learning by watching and working with all the potters in the family around her. Then she apprenticed herself to her cousin, Mark Tahbo, for several years. Mark helped her get to a level where she has a steady stream of earned ribbons coming in.

Dorothy doesn’t produce a lot of pottery, she’s a firm believer in quality over quantity. She also doesn’t seem to participate much in big shows: apparently she was at the Hopi Marketplace Show at the Museum of Northern Arizona in 1999 and didn’t appear anywhere again until she went to the Heard Museum Indian Arts Fair & Market in 2013. There don’t seem to be any records of her participation after that.

Dorothy’s work is very precise in design and decoration. For example, a traditional potter will usually use the chewed end of a yucca leaf as their paint brush but for Dorothy, that’s too large. She uses brushes made from strands of her own hair.

Some Awards Dorothy earned

• 1999 Hopi Marketplace. Museum of Northern Arizona. Pottery Division, Decorative Plainware: Second Place
• 1998 Hopi Marketplace. Museum of Northern Arizona. Pottery Division; Decorative Plainware: Honorable Mention
• 1997 Hopi Marketplace. Museum of Northern Arizona. Pottery Division, Plainware: Honorable Mention