Nampeyo, Elva

The daughter of Hopi-Tewa potter Fannie Nampeyo, Elva Nampeyo was born in the Corn Clan house of her grandmother, Nampeyo of Hano, in 1926. In her early years, Elva watched as her famous grandmother made pottery but Nampeyo was blind by then, making the clay bodies purely by feel. Nampeyo’s daughter, Fannie, and granddaughter, Daisy Hooee Nampeyo, were taking turns doing most of Nampeyo’s painting. When Elva was 11, Fannie began directly teaching her the traditional process from end to end. Elva was shortly expert at the making, decorating and firing of her pottery. Her husband, Richard Tewaguna, never worked with her in her pottery making process.

Elva specialized in using black and red designs on Jeddito yellow jars and bowls. Her favorite designs included eagle motifs, bird elements and traditional migration patterns. Her work very much resembled that of her mother and grandmother, although she would now and then make something out of the ordinary and decorate it with designs of her own invention. Elva truly enjoyed making pottery and could form as many as eight pots in a day. She slowed down in her later years and her daughter Adelle took over polishing, decorating and firing her pottery for her.

Elva signed her pottery “Elva Nampeyo” and followed that with a Corn Clan symbol, as her mother had done before her. Elva had five children, four of whom became potters: Elton, Adelle, Miriam and Neva. Elva passed on in 1985.

Some of Elva’s work was featured in the Elegance from Earth: Hopi Pottery exhibit at the Heard Museum in Phoenix from March 24, 2012 to April 6, 2014.