Born at Acoma Pueblo in 1951, Rebecca Lucario is a member of the Yellow Corn Clan. She has been actively making pottery since 1965 and is recognized as the finest Acoma potter working today with her exquisite fine line eye dazzlers and Mimbres-Revival designs. Her pottery is thin and elegant, her designs perfectly executed.

Rebecca learned this art growing up with her sisters: Diane Lewis, Judy Lewis, Marilyn Ray and Carolyn Concho, and she's passing her knowledge on to her children. She says the ancient pottery-making techniques were passed to her from her maternal grandmother, Delores S. Sanchez (1902-1991). "My grandmother let me play with the mud they used to plaster their adobe house," she recalls. "We made little animal figures and pinch pots with red adobe clay. I still have two pots that I made when I was eight. One is a flower plate, the other a vase with fine lines. She never let us play with her clay because clay for making pottery is very sacred."

In Rebecca's process, she fires her pieces twice: first in an electric kiln to test the clay, then outside in the traditional manner. She says the traditional way gets much hotter than the kiln firing.

Her designs are so detailed and her lines so fine, she may spend up to 12 hours spread over several days just on the black design work for one of her pots. She says she doesn't measure or plot her designs with tools, she spaces the basic design elements purely by eye. She uses a traditional yucca brush to paint her designs and signs her creations: Acoma, NM R. Lucario, next to her kokopelli-playing-his-flute hallmark.

She told us the most difficult pieces of pottery to make are plates (they tend to buckle, warp or crack while drying and when fired). Rebecca has been known to make plates up to 30 inches in diameter. She explains, "The secret to making plates is to not make them too thin or too thick. You also have to knead the clay really well to get out any air bubbles it may have in it."

One of her amazing plates was featured on the cover of the 2002 catalog for the highly acclaimed Changing Hands: Art without Reservation touring exhibit organized by the Museum of Art & Design in New York City. She told us she gasped when she learned that the Museum created a giant banner of her plate and unfurled it at the opening of the exhibit. "That recognition kind of snuck up on me," she said.

Since 1983 Rebecca has been a consistent ribbon earner at the annual Santa Fe Indian Market with many First and Second Place ribbons in her collection.

Some of the Awards Rebecca has Earned

• 2019 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division B - Traditional Painted Pottery. Category 602 - Painted polychrome pottery in the style of Zuni, Acoma, Laguna, any form: Second Place
  - Classification II - Pottery, Division F - Miniature pots, individual pieces under 3" in any direction, Category 1001 - Traditional: First Place
• 2018 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division E - Contemporary Pottery, Any Form or Design, Using commercial clays/glazes, all firing techniques, Category 907 - Painted, any form: Honorable Mention
• 2017 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division E - Contemporary Pottery, any form or design, using commercial clays/glazes, all firing techniques, Category 905 - Miscellaneous: First Place
• 2004 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division E - Traditional pottery, jars, including wedding jars, Category 1202 - Jars, Acoma: First Place
  - Classification II - Pottery, Division F - Traditional pottery, painted designs on matte or semi-matte surface, all forms except jars, Category 1305 - Plates: Second Place