Cochiti Pueblo Pottery
Although ceramic figurines are made by artists in many of the pueblos, it is Cochiti that is best known for its figurative tradition. The most popular form of figurine is a human adult with one or more children attached and variously called a "storyteller," "singing mother," or "parenting doll."
The production of clay figurines for sale to tourists dates back to the late nineteenth century, but it was not until Helen Cordero began making figurines sometime in the 1950s that the medium became popular with collectors and devotees of Native American art. Helen Cordero's early figurines followed the Cochiti tradition of miniature animals and people, including the singing mother - a female figure holding a baby and singing with open mouth. Her creation in 1964 of a larger type of figurine, a male storyteller modeled after her grandfather, with several children hanging onto him, rapidly became popular with collectors. Today many potters from Cochiti and several other pueblos make "storytellers." The figurines shown on the right, a father (6 1/2" high) and a mother (7" high), are examples of Cordero's work, as is the third storyteller (8" high) in the photograph.
Also shown are other examples of Cochiti figurines, including a storyteller by Dorothy Trujillo, a lizard, and an owl.