Santa Clara Pueblo - Tewa

Denise Chavarria was born in the early 1960’s and she is a full blooded Native American Indian from the Pueblo of Santa Clara-Tewa. She began working with clay at the age of 16. She was inspired by her mother, Stella Chavarria, to continue the long lived family tradition of making pottery using ancient traditional methods. Stella taught Denise all the fundamentals of working with clay and encouraged her to continue the family tradition and add to the legacy.

Denise specializes in hand coiling traditional black on black Santa Clara pottery. She gathers her clay from within the hills of the Santa Clara Pueblo. Next, she cleans the clay, mixes, hand coils, shapes, sands, etches, and fires her pottery, outdoors, using horse dung. Then, she adds a fine polish which she has mastered to perfection. She signs her pottery as: Denise Chavarria, Santa Clara Pueblo. She is related to the following artists: Teresita Naranjo (grandmother), and Loretta “Sunday” Chavarria (sister).

Publications:
-Fourteen Families in Pueblo Pottery
-Seven Families in Pueblo Pottery
-Southwestern Pottery Anasazi to Zuni
-Pueblo Indian Pottery 750 Artist Biographies
Awards:
-Santa Fe Indian Market 1st, 2nd, & 3rd Place various years
-Eight Northern Arts & Crafts Show