Tosa, Wilma Baca

Wilma Baca, (New Wheat), was born to John and Linda Baca in Jemez Pueblo in September 1967. By the time she was five, she already had her hands in the clay. Her grandmother, Marie Reyes Shendo, saw that and took Wilma under her wing.

Marie had been one of the original potters in the 1920s attempt to revive the Jemez pottery tradition.  She taught Wilma the fundamentals of making pottery the traditional way using ancient methods passed down from their ancestors.

Wilma specializes in hand coiled, stone polished and traditionally decorated Jemez pottery. She makes redware bowls, jars, seed pots, vases and wedding vases.

Wilma has been etching her pottery using the free-hand sgraffito technique since 1989. Her favorite piece to make is the wedding vase because of its meaning: “The spouts represent two separate lives, the bridge across the middle unites these separate lives as one,” she says.