Glendora Fragua

Jemez
Polychrome jar with sgraffito and painted Corn Mother, corn plant and geometric design

Born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1958, Glendora Fragua also spent some of her early years in California before her family returned to Jemez Pueblo in the 1970s. Her grandmother, Beninga Medina Madelena, married into Jemez Pueblo from Zia Pueblo years before and has been credited with helping to revive the Jemez pottery making tradition. Glendora learned the fundamentals of the traditional Jemez way of making pottery from her mother, Juanita Fragua, and by the age of 16 she was working with sgraffito techniques, working to develop her own style.

Glendora characterizes her work as contemporary/traditional: hand-gathered-and-processed clay, volcanic ash for temper, paints from the rocks and the plants, everything is done by hand the ancient way... her electric kiln is the only modern technology she uses. The designs she uses are her own, carved into her pots after they've dried and been polished but before firing. After carving she might add a red or buff or micaceous slip, then she adds her trademark cornstalk to the bottom and signs the piece before placing it in her kiln and firing it. Sometimes she adds inlaid stones to a piece, placing them, removing them before going in the kiln and then replacing them after the piece is finished being fired.

Glendora Daubs is a name many collectors recognize her by as she used that during the time she was married. Over the years she has earned pretty much every Blue Ribbon awarded for pottery at the various Indian Markets and Fairs in the Southwest at least once.

Some Awards Glendora has Earned

  • 2020 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division E - Any design or form with native materials, kiln-fired pottery: First Place. Awarded for the collaborative artwork with Juanita C. Fragua: "Generations"
  • 2019 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division G - Pottery miniatures not to exceed three (3) inches at its greatest dimension: Honorable Mention. Awarded for artwork: "Night Flight"
  • 2016 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market: Best of Show. Awarded for the collaborative work with Jody Naranjo entitled: "Pueblo Luck"
  • 2016 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, Classification II - Pottery: Best of Classification. Awarded for the collaborative work with Jody Naranjo entitled: "Pueblo Luck"
  • 2016 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division A - Traditional, Native Clay, Hand Built, Painted: First Place. Awarded for the collaborative work with Jody Naranjo entitled: "Pueblo Luck"
  • 2014 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, Classification II Pottery, Division C - Traditional, native clay, hand built, carved: Second Place
  • 2011 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, Classification II - Pottery: Best of Classification with Harlan Reano
  • 2011 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division A - Traditional, native clay, hand built, painted: Honorable Mention
  • 2007 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division C - Traditional, native clay, hand built, carved: Second Place
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