Cochiti Pueblo has a long history of producing figurative pottery. Among their more famous figures are storytellers: male or female figures that are usually seated and often have one or more children perched on their laps, arms, heads or backs. Seferina Ortiz (1931-2007) was one of the most respected of the figure-making potters of her time. The Ortiz family has always shown deep respect for the traditions of their people while also exercising their individual creativity. A close-knit multi-generational family, they would often share the tasks of gathering and processing clay, and performing communal cow dung firings, the firings usually done behind Seferina's house.

Seferina's mother, Laurencita Herrera, showed her how to make pottery early in life and she continued making pottery almost until the day she died. She also passed the basics of the tradition on to her children and grandchildren. All of them became skilled at making jars, storytellers and other figures. Joyce became well known for her mermaids, nativity sets and miniature storytellers. Virgil pioneered a revival of a 19th century style of standing human figures, adding social commentary to his figures and the designs he painted on his jars. Inez also made large figures while Lisa teamed with Harlan Reano of Santo Domingo Pueblo and they became award-earning, figure-making potters, too.

Seferina said she invented the bathing beauty and mermaid figures: "When they built Cochiti Dam, all these white people were coming to swim at the lake and the lake flooded our fields, so I thought about making these (figures) with bathing suits and tails. We never had them before." When Cochiti Dam was built, the construction also destroyed the main source of Cochiti's white clay and the source where San Ildefonso and Santa Clara got the clay that turned a deep, luscious red when fired.

Seferina's work is shown in many museum and private collections. The Peabody Museum of Harvard University alone has 32 pieces of her pottery in its collection. She contributed a piece called "Cochiti Bathing Beauty" to the Smithsonian Institution exhibit of American Encounters, 1991-2004. During her life she earned numerous awards for her pottery at events such as the Santa Fe Indian Market. She signed her work: "S. Ortiz, Cochiti".