Mary Beatrice Blake Witkop

Mary Beatrice Blake Witkop (1948–2010) was a Taos, New Mexico potter known for hand-built, stone-burnished earthenware vessels strongly inspired by traditional Pueblo Indian pottery. She was born in Denver, Colorado, and was exposed early to Pueblo pottery through her mother’s collection (including works by San Ildefonso potter Maria Martinez). In 1969, while at Colorado State University, she met self-taught potter Carl Witkop. A pre-Columbian art class led her to experiment with ancient coil-building, stone-burnishing, and pit-firing methods. Together they developed the “Cloud Fire” technique (also associated with horsehair pottery), in which organic materials such as horsehair, leaves, feathers, sawdust, or other materials are applied to still-hot pots to create unique smoke and carbon markings.