Cochiti Pueblo Hand Made Pottery Storyteller

Vangie Suina is a full blooded Native American Indian, she was born in the mid-sixties into the Cochiti Pueblo. Louise Suina, who is her mother, taught her all the fundamentals of working with pottery artforms, from mixing the clay to hand building the dolls using the ancient traditional hand coiling method, which has been passed down through several generations of their people. Vangie has been working with clay art since the age of 22. She chose to become an artisan so that she could spend more time at home with her children, husband, and it allows her to contribute her unique style of art to the long lived legacy of her people.

Vangie specializes in contemporary storytellers, turtles, and drums. Vangie gathers her raw materials from within the Cochiti Pueblo. She soaks her clay and later mixes it with sand to temper it. When the clay reaches the perfect consistency it is hand formed into a storyteller figurine. Then, she sets her figures out to dry, the drying process is a very delicate state in the making. Vangie needs to keep checking her pieces so that they don’t crack and if they begin cracking in the early stages she can easily repair and add more clay. Once the figures are dry she places them on a grill outdoors with manure cakes placed on top in an igloo fashion begins the baking process which lasts about 2 hours depending on the size of the figures. When the baking process is complete, she allows her pieces to cool down thoroughly and she begins to hand paint them. She like to paint her figures after the baking process because it allows her to decorate her art in vivid contemporary hues and thus gives her a unique style all her own. She typically signs her pottery as Vangie Suina, Cochiti. 

6 1/8" Tall, 3 1/4" Wide, 4" Deep