Rondina Huma, Hopi Pueblo Potter

Award-winning Hopi Pueblo artist Rondina Huma produces the most perfect pottery vessels, balanced in every respect and burnished to a smooth and beautiful finish.  She then applies a total composite design that completely conceals the base surface.  Her designs are minute or thumbnail images of Sikyatki prehistoric designs from her pueblo's ancestral village.

She has been one of the most sought after Hopi Pueblo potters for over a decade now. She has been featured in many publications and her work is represented in major galleries and museums throughout the country. There is no mystery as to why Rondina has won many awards over the years for her exquisite work. She deserves every accolade bestowed on her.  Rondina walked away with awards from the Santa Fe Indian Market. One of her pieces was awarded Best of Show (Santa Fe Indian Market in 1986 and again in 1996), Best of Division, and Best Traditional Pottery.  She is recognized for her intricate designs, incorporating hundreds of small elements. Her polish is exceptional and her painting remarkable.

Rondina Huma had no formal training in pottery making, yet she is a master of the art. Her pottery is traditional in every manner-- she does the entire process in the traditional Hopi fashion using nothing but native materials, even to fashioning her own paint brushes from the leaves of the yucca plant.  She hand coils all her vessels and uses only vegetal and mineral paints. Traditional firing is carried out as well. 

Rondina Huma was born 1947 in Keams Canyon, Arizona, and is a member of the Tewa Kachina/Parrot clans. She has lived in the village of Polacca since childhood. She signs her pottery Rondina Huma Tewa-Hopi, and also with her clan symbol, a parrot (see example image).

Artist image source from original August 1977 photograph of Rondina Huma, Hopi Pueblo Potter

TAGS: Contemporary Pottery, Hopi Pueblo