Williams, Sue Ann

Sue Ann Williams is one of the daughters of Dineh pottery matriarch Rose Williams. Like her older sisters, Alice Cling and Susie Crank, she learned how to make pottery by watching and working with their mother as she was growing up.

Rose had long had a business making large pots for tribal healers and for drummers but they were made the old Dineh way: smoothed with a corn cob or a piece of gourd only. Even with a pine pitch coating they were a bit rough. Alice realized that after making her own pots and seeing that they didn’t sell. So she took it on herself to “dress them up”: she polished them with a river stone before firing them. It made a huge difference. Soon even Rose’ pots were being stone polished and the art market opened up for them all.

That said, Sue Ann has never been prolific as a maker of pottery. She did teach her daughter, Andrea Williams, how to make pottery and Andrea has been active in the marketplace for a few years now.