Diaz, Tina

Born into Santa Clara Pueblo in 1946, Tina Diaz is the daughter of Willie and Mary Cain, granddaughter of Christina Naranjo. Billy Cain, Warren Cain, Linda Cain and Joy Cain are her siblings. Like them, Tina learned to make pottery as she was growing up, through watching and working with her mother and grandmother. She started making pottery for the marketplace right after she finished high school. Some of her work was included in the 1974 exhibit Seven Families in Pueblo Pottery at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

Tina made carved redware and blackware bowls and jars for years. Then she branched into polishing the natural tan clay she uses as a base clay. She’s one of the few Santa Clara potters who have mastered that.