Mary Singer

Santa Clara

Mary Singer is the daughter of Pablita Chavarria. She was born into Santa Clara Pueblo in 1936 and started producing pottery around 1955. She is the wife of Lawrence Singer; sister of Clara Shije; Thomas Chavarria, Reycita Naranjo, Elizabeth Naranjo, Florence Browning, Mary Agnes, Loretto Chavarria, Joe Chavarria, and Mildred Chavarria; and the mother to six children. Well known for her elegant black carved traditional Black ware, she has coiled large vessels, as well as smaller bowls. Her designs can be complicated – and always beautiful.

“I learned from my mom. She is more or less the one who showed me how to make the clay and do polishing. We (my sisters and I) helped her when she was living to fire and do other things with her. She was going to teach us how to do red, but we never did. We talked about it, but never did it. She mostly did larger and medium carved black pots. I like large pots, nice large ones where I can work them. I like to go and sell at the markets, but most of the time people call and order.” – Dillingham 1994