We’re thrilled to have Glendora Fragua as our featured artist for December. She’s sent us some pottery jewels with intricate sgraffito, stunning designs and coral and turquoise inlay. Glendora is recognized as one of today’s top Pueblo potters. Her pottery is elegant and sophisticated, with precision sgraffito on highly polished red and buff clay vessels. Sgraffito is a scratch technique of carving requiring a steady hand for the delicate, intricate and precise designs.

Her work echoes classic Pueblo designs - kiva steps, spirit figures, rain symbols and corn, her adaptations of them are uniquely her own. Glendora learned to make pottery from her mother Juanita Fragua, a well-known and recognized potter. Glendora's grandmother, Beninga Medina Madelena, came from the Zia Pueblo and married into the Jemez Pueblo. Beninga has been credited as helping revive pottery making at Jemez.

"My work is contemporary," says Glendora "but my methods are traditional. We gather clay from the Pueblo and temper it with volcanic ash. Our paints are from the earth. The building and polishing are all done by hand." Her only nod to technology is the use of a kiln to fire her finished work.

For a period, she worked as Glendora Daubs and many collectors today still know her under her married name. Glendora has received numerous awards for her work, including First Place at the Santa Fe and Dallas Indian Markets, First Place at the Heard and Eiteljorg Museums and Best of Show at Gallup Ceremonial.