Marcella Yepa

Marcella Yepa is from the Jemez Pueblo, a member of the Sun Clan. She began working with clay at the age of 19. She was inspired to learn the art of pottery making by her grandmother, Felipita Yepa. Her grandmother shared with her all the fundamentals of hand coiling traditional pottery. She also learned from Felipita which hills provided the best clay to work with and special techniques to construct her art. Marcella has established her own style of making contemporary swirled and melon style pottery.

She gathers her clay and other natural pigments within the Jemez Pueblo. She soaks the clay, grinds it to a powder form, cleans the clay, hand mixes, coils, and shapes and carves the pottery. Then she polishes it with a stone, and fires outdoors with wood. Marcella has won numerous awards at the Eight Northern Indian Pueblo Council Markets.