Bird, Helen

Helen Bird is a potter from Santo Domingo Pueblo. Santo Domingo is more of a jewelry making pueblo than a pottery making pueblo. Helen said she got interested in working with clay when her great-aunt took her along on a trip to gather clay from a special place on the pueblo. She didn’t really get into making pottery, however, until after a career as an alcohol and substance abuse counselor. That was around 1991. She was in the vanguard of the 1990s revival of pottery making at Santo Domingo. She mostly made stone-polished redware jars and bowls, often decorating them around the exterior with painted geometric designs.