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- 210616-12 San Ildefonso Black Feather Pottery by Blue Corn,
210616-12 San Ildefonso Black Feather Pottery by Blue Corn,
ca. 1970, 2" x 3"d with a brass color insert at the rim. Very unusual. Light overall surface wear but overall in very good condition.
Crucita Gonzalez Calabaza (December 27, 1921 – May 3, 1999), also known as Blue Corn, was a Native American artist and potter from San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico, in the United States. She became famous for reviving San Ildefonso polychrome wares and had a very long and productive career.
Her grandmother first introduced her to pottery making at the age of three. Maria Martinez's sister gave her the name "Blue Corn" during the naming ceremony, which is the Native American tradition of naming a child. She learned the black-on-black pottery tradition from Martinez.
Blue Corn attended school at the pueblo in her early years. She then went to Santa Fe Indian School, which was 24 miles (39 km) from home. While attending school in Santa Fe, her mother and father died, and she was sent to live with relatives in southern California where she worked as a maid for a short time in Beverly Hills.
At the age of 20, she married Santiago "Sandy" Calabaza, a silversmith from Santo Domingo Pueblo. Together they settled at San Ildefonso, where she bore and raised 10 children. During World War II, Blue Corn worked as a housecleaner in Los Alamos for the physicist, J. Robert Oppenheimer.