Considered a matriarch of
the remaining Nampeyo family, Tonita is the eldest daughter of
Fannie Nampeyo, and grand-daughter to the legendary Nampeyo who
was credited as being instrumental in the revitalization of Hopi
polychrome pottery.
In the footsteps of her forebears,
Tonita stays true to her traditional roots, preferring to do
everything the "old way." Her clay is still dug from
deposits near her home. She still hand-coils and hand polishes
every piece she does. Tonita remains loyal to many of the original
Sikyatki ruins designs, as can be seen here in this beautiful
wedding vase.
The traditional "migration
pattern" design appears around the entire vase and you can
see from the photo preceding this description, that the pottery
is fairly large. Tonita is holding it gracefully here. The rich
orange and brown colors are achieved through a traditional process
of pigmentation where natural vegetal and mineral dyes are used.
Tonita is world-renown and
appears in nearly every publication dealing with Hopi pottery.
Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums across the
globe, and she has shown and placed at nearly every major venue
throughout the Southwest.
Her work appears in Fourteen
Families in Pueblo Pottery by Rick Dillingham, The Art
of the Hopi by Jerry Jacka, and Hopi-Tewa Pottery: 500
Artists Biographies by Gregory Schaff as well as others.
