Quezada, Nicolas

Nicolas Quezada Celado was the first of the Quezada siblings Juan taught to make pottery. Part of the reason for that was that Juan was still refining his process himself, and you never know what you know until you try to teach someone else… Juan brought Nicolas in because Nicolas was a great problem solver and Juan had problems to solve.

In the early years Nicolas helped Juan by finding new sources of clay, new materials to temper the clay with and new methods of polishing the pots. He was also the first potter in Mata Ortiz to construct a secador (a tank used to speed the drying of clay suspended in water).

Nicolas was always a great experimenter. He was the first potter in Mata Ortiz to try measuring very specific amounts of colored clay into prepared white clay to achieve very granular variations in color. The white clay he uses is also among the hardest clays to form, paint and fire.

Nicolas also discovered he could attain different shades of color by polishing the clay surface with unique combinations of water and oil.

Like his older brother, Nicolas decorates his pieces with long curving lines and sweeping arcs of color. He doesn’t like to work with blackware as he doesn’t like to polish his pots several times in order to get them smooth enough for that glossy black finish.

Also like his older brother, Nicolas has made many trips around the United States demonstrating and teaching his pottery making techniques. He and his wife live in a modern adobe in Casas Grandes, overlooking the ruins of Paquimé.