Cochiti/San Felipe Pueblo Storyteller Pottery Doll By Dena M. Suina

Late 20th Century

4.625" H x 4" L x 2.5" W

Hand Coiled of a Sitting Storyteller Holding Ten Children all Holding Classroom Material and a Bowl Sitting on the Adults Lap Signed Dena M. Suina Cochiti/San Felipe Pue., N.M. on the Bottom

In Very Good Condition

Dena M. Suina (born 1961) is a Native American potter from San Felipe Pueblo who creates traditional Cochiti-style storyteller pottery dolls/figurines after marrying into Cochiti Pueblo. She was born in September 1961 at San Felipe Pueblo to Joe and Juana Trancosa. Pottery-making was not actively practiced at San Felipe during her youth, so she had little exposure until she married into the Suina family at Cochiti Pueblo in the 1980s (sources note her as the daughter-in-law of Ada Suina or Louise Suina). She learned hand-coiling, pinching, and painting techniques by observing and studying with her mother-in-law, beginning serious work with clay around 1991.