"I hope when I'm 93, I wake up every day and say I want to make a pot."

Nancy Youngblood was born to Mela and Walt Youngblood at Fort Lewis, Washington, in 1955. Due to her father's military career, the Youngblood family moved every couple years until Walt was sent to Vietnam in 1968. That is when Mela returned to Santa Clara Pueblo with their 2 kids, Nancy and Nathan. When Walt came back from Vietnam, he rejoined the family at Santa Clara.

Shortly after their return to Santa Clara, Mela decided to get serious about making pottery. The three Youngblood's started spending most of their free time with the matriarch of the family, Margaret Tafoya. Mela was a very good potter but Nancy says she learned more from Margaret. Her grandfather, Alcario, also taught her how to carve traditional Santa Clara designs into her pots.

Toward the end of high school, Nancy decided she'd rather be a painter and earned a four-year scholarship to the San Francisco Art Institute. But the world of academia was too sterile for her. Then she tried the University of New Mexico but was turned off by the faculty she had to deal with. So she went back home to find a job.

One of the first places she applied at was Packard's, a department store (now closed) on the Plaza in Santa Fe. Al Packard, the owner, knew her family and asked why she wasn't making pottery. About that same time her father decided that if she wasn't going to finish her education, he wasn't going to keep supporting her. So she became a starving artist for a while. She moved into a family house with her aunt, Shirley Cactus Blossom Tafoya. Shirley was just learning to be a potter, too. The stories about Nancy and a friend selling miniature pots at Santa Fe Indian Market for $15-$25... they're true. Nancy and Shirley did so well during Indian Market they kept making and selling those small pots for months after.

Nancy then married her high school sweetheart and supported them as he went through medical school. Soon after he finished med school and started his practice, their marriage broke up.

Nancy didn't stop then, she dedicated herself to her pottery. She put in 12-to-16 hour days, seven days a week for more than a decade. Then things started to click for her. Nancy evolved the melon jar into multiple forms, adding ribs, curves and lids. She got her firing practice down so her black pots were gorgeously glossy black pots. Awards poured in and her work was being shown in galleries around the country. Every year more copycats popped up. It didn't matter: her work was simply too good for them to copy.

Then Nancy met an engineer, fell in love and married again. One of the first things he did was teach her to ride a motorcycle. Then when they went for a ride, they had "his-and-hers" Harleys.

Over the years Nancy amassed nearly 300 ribbons and awards for her work. She likens the making of pottery to the playing of a musical instrument, saying "the more you practice, the better you become." Nancy also credits her record on the fact she always uses traditional methods, right down to praying and using cornmeal before getting the clay and sand and praying before each firing.

She leaves as little to luck and chance as possible but knows there is some point in the process where "the spirit of the Clay Mother takes over and you learn to leave well enough alone. Something larger takes command and then you have to let go and trust the process. The fire decides its destiny."

Some Recent Awards earned by Nancy

• 2023 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II Division A - Traditional unpainted pottery, Best of Division
• 2023 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification IIA, Category 504 - Pins and Pendants, First Place
• 2023 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification IIA, Category 506 - Boundary, Second Place