Charmae Shields
Natseway
Acoma
Hunter Gatherer
10" H
x 4 1/4" W
Charmae Shields-Natseway is
a member of the Yellow Corn Clan from the Acoma Pueblo. She was
born in 1958 and has been working with clay art since 1977.
She learned the art of working
with clay from Dolores Sanchez, her grandmother, and Ethel Shields,
her mother. They taught her all the fundamentals of constructing
pottery using the ancient traditional method of hand coiling
and pinching that has been passed down from generation to generation.
Charmae is noted for her superb
quality of lidded pottery cylinders, boxes, and pyramids.
She gathers her natural clays
and slips from within the Acoma Pueblo. She breaks the clumps
of clay down to a fine powder form and them mixes it with water
and other natural pigments to a fine medium. Then, she begins
to hand coil her vessels. When the raw formed vessels are dried
she sands off the excess to give her vessels a smooth finish.
She hand boils all her colors from natural plants and vegetation
and begins to hand paint her designs.
She signs her pottery as:
Charmae Shields Natseway, Acoma, N.M., followed by a corn stalk
to denote her family origin.
Publications:
-Southwestern Pottery Anasazi
to Zuni
-Southern Pueblo Pottery 2,000 Artist Biographies
-Fourteen Families in Pueblo Pottery
Awards:
-Santa Fe Indian Market numerous
years
-New Mexico State Fair numerous years
-Gallup N.M. Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremony
-Phoenix Heard Museum Show