San Ildefonso Pueblo Pottery

San Ildefonso has produced fine ceramic art since early pre-Columbian times. The tradition was still strong in the late 1800s when most San Ildefonso potters were making polychrome pottery and painting it with mythical and geometric designs. Then in the early 1900s, Dr. Edgar Hewitt came to the pueblo in search of someone to make some pottery for him. He showed everyone samples of what he wanted and they all pointed to Maria Martinez, saying “She's the best potter in the village. Ask her.”

The samples he had were pot sherds his team had found while excavating at Tsankawi, an ancestral home of the San Ildefonso. The sherds were black, produced by a process forgotten to the San Ildefonso potters. Maria turned out to be the right woman in the right place at the right time. And she knew who to ask about making the pots black.

Today, San Ildefonso is most known for being the home of the most famous Pueblo Indian potter, Maria Martinez. Many other excellent potters have produced quality pottery from this pueblo, too, among them: Blue Corn, Tonita and Juan Roybal, Dora Tse Pe and Rose Gonzales. Of course the descendants of Maria Martinez are still important pillars of San Ildefonso's pottery tradition. Maria's influence reached far and wide, so far and wide that even Juan Quezada, founder of the Mata Ortiz pottery renaissance in Chihuahua, Mexico, came to San Ildefonso to study with her.