Santa Clara Pueblo Miniature Incised Seed Pottery By Grace Medicine Flower

ca. 1979

2" H x 2.5" D

Hand Coiled Redware Seed Pot that Features Carved Mimbres Style Design with Three Carved Pipe Smokers

In Very Good Condition

Grace Medicine Flower (b. 1938) is a renowned Santa Clara Pueblo potter, celebrated for her innovative miniature incised (sgraffito) seed pots and other carved pottery. She belongs to the prominent Tafoya pottery family.

Grace Tafoya was Born in 1938 at Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico. She is the daughter of potters Agapita and Camilio Tafoya, niece of legendary potter Margaret Tafoya, and sister of potter Joseph Lonewolf.

She began making pottery in the 1960s, initially collaborating with her father (pieces signed with both names). In the late 1960s, she and her brother were among the first at Santa Clara Pueblo to adopt the sgraffito technique—finely incising/carving designs into the clay surface.

She hand-coils her pots using local clay, fires them outdoors, and often uses a knife or sharpened nail for intricate carving. Early works were traditional; she later expanded to detailed sgraffito with animal, bird, flower, feather, Mimbres-style, and Avanyu (water serpent) motifs. She also pioneered or popularized "basket weave" effects and re-oxidized sienna highlights.