Tena, Esperanza

Esperanza Tena de Sandoval is a potter from the village of Mata Ortiz in northern Mexico. She’s the wife of Eusebio Chevo Sandoval and mother of Ismael Sandoval.

Most of the pottery we’ve seen from Esperanza is black-on-black with bands of corrugation on the upper shoulder. Her designs and styles are very much like that of her father-in-law, Eduardo Chevo Ortiz, with the addition of corrugation. She also developed a style where she covers most of a pot’s surface with tiny points of clay and leaves clear bands for painted designs.