Martha Appleleaf
San Ildefonso
Martha Appleleaf Fender was born into San Ildefonso Pueblo in 1950. She was the daughter of Carmelita Vigil Dunlap and Nicholas Cata. She grew up in a pottery-making family and still remembers watching her great-aunts, Desideria Montoya and Maria Martinez, as they made pottery when she was younger. And as much as her mother, Juanita, also made pottery, Martha says it was her father, Carlos Dunlap, who really taught her how to do it herself.
Over the years Martha has experimented with using different techniques and different clays. She made some cream-on-red pots like her uncle and aunt Albert and Josephine Vigil. She made some green-on-red pots, similar to those of another uncle, Tse Pe. She also sometimes let her son, Erik Sunbird Fender, paint her pots.
Some Awards Won by Martha
- 2023 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II-C, Category 705 - Painted designs on a black or red burnished or polished surface, any form in the style of San Ildefonso, Second Place
- 2018 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division C - Traditional Burnished Black or Red Ware; Incised, Painted or Carved, Category 705 - Painted designs on a black or red burnished or polished surface, any form in the style of San Ildefonso: Second Place
- 2017 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division C - Traditional Burnished Black or Red Ware; Incised, Painted or Carved, Category 705 - Painted designs on a black or red burnished or polished surface, any form in the style of San Ildefonso: First Place
- 2017 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division C - Traditional Burnished Black or Red Ware; Incised, Painted or Carved, Category 705 - Painted designs on a black or red burnished or polished surface, any form in the style of San Ildefonso: Second Place
- 2004 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division D - Traditional pottery, painted designs on burnished black or red surface, Category 1102 - Bowls: First Place
- 2004 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division D - Traditional pottery, painted designs on burnished black or red surface, Category 1104 - Miscellaneous: First Place
- 2001 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division D - Traditional pottery, painted designs on burnished black or red surface (in the style of Santa Clara or San Ildefonso): Best of Division with Erik Fender
- 2001 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division D - Traditional pottery, painted designs on burnished black or red surface (in the style of Santa Clara or San Ildefonso), Category 1101 - Jars: First Place with Erik Fender
- 1999 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division H - Non-traditional any forms using non-traditional materials or techniques, Category 1504 - Jars and vases, painted, other: Third Place
- 1999 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division D - Traditional pottery, painted designs on burnished black or red surface (in the style of Santa Clara or San Ildefonso), Category 1104 - Wedding vases: First Place
- 1998 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division D - Traditional pottery, painted designs on burnished black or red surface (in the style of Santa Clara or San Ildefonso), Category 1101 - Jars: Third Place
- 1998 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division D - Traditional pottery, painted designs on burnished black or red surface (in the style of Santa Clara or San Ildefonso), Category 1103 - Bowls: Second Place
- 1997 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division D - Traditional pottery, painted designs on burnished black or red surface, Category 1101 - Jars: Third Place
- 1997 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division D - Traditional pottery, painted designs on burnished black or red surface, Category 1103 - Bowls: Third Place
- 1997 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division D - Traditional pottery, painted designs on burnished black or red surface, Category 1104 - Wedding vases: Second Place
- 1996 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Category 1101 - Jars: Third Place
- 1995 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division E - Traditional pottery, painted designs on burnished black or red surface (in the style of Santa Clara or San Ildefonso), Category 1201 - Jars: Second Place
- 1995 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division E - Traditional pottery, painted designs on burnished black or red surface (in the style of Santa Clara or San Ildefonso), Category 1201 - Jars: Third Place
- 1995 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division E - Traditional pottery, painted designs on burnished black or red surface (in the style of Santa Clara or San Ildefonso), Category 1206 - Plates: Second Place with Erik Fender
- 1995 Santa Fe Indian Market, Classification II - Pottery, Division E - Traditional pottery, painted designs on burnished black or red surface (in the style of Santa Clara or San Ildefonso), Category 1207 - Miscellaneous: First Place
100 West San Francisco Street, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501
(505) 986-1234 - www.andreafisherpottery.com - All Rights Reserved
San Ildefonso Pueblo
San Ildefonso Pueblo is located about twenty miles northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, mostly on the eastern bank of the Rio Grande. Although their ancestry has been traced to prehistoric pueblos in the Mesa Verde area, their most recent ancestral home is in the area of Bandelier National Monument, the prehistoric village of Tsankawi in particular. Tsankawi abuts the reservation on its northwest side.
A mission church was built in 1617 and named for San Ildefonso. Hence the name. Before that the village was called Powhoge, "where the water cuts through" (in Tewa). Today's pueblo was established as long ago as the 1300s. When the Spanish arrived in 1540, they estimated the village population at about 2,000.
That mission was destroyed during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 and when Don Diego de Vargas returned to reclaim the San Ildefonso area in 1694, he found virtually all the Tewa people on top of nearby Black Mesa. After an extended siege the two sides negotiated a treaty and the people returned to their villages. However, the next 250 years were not good for them. The Spanish swine flu pandemic of 1918 reduced the pueblo's population to about 90. Their population has grown to more than 600 now but the only economic activity available on the pueblo involves creating art in one form or another. The only other work is off-pueblo. San Ildefonso's population is small compared to neighboring Santa Clara Pueblo, but the pueblo maintains its own religious traditions and ceremonial feast days.
San Ildefonso is most known for being the home of the most famous Pueblo Indian potter, Maria Martinez. Many other excellent potters from this pueblo have produced quality pottery, too, among them: Blue Corn, Tonita and Juan Roybal, Dora Tse Pe and Rose Gonzales. Of course the descendants of Maria Martinez are still important pillars of San Ildefonso's pottery tradition. Maria's influence reached far and wide, so far and wide that even Juan Quezada of the Mata Ortiz pottery renaissance in Chihuahua, Mexico, came to San Ildefonso to learn from her.
100 West San Francisco Street, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501
(505) 986-1234 - www.andreafisherpottery.com - All Rights Reserved