Ida Sahmie

Navajo

Ida Sahmie was born near Pine Springs, AZ in 1960. She was raised in a traditional Navajo family: she learned to weave from her mother and grandmother but she didn't think she had the patience to be a real weaver. Then in the mid 1980s she married Andrew "Louie" Sahmie. He was Hopi-Tewa and Ida moved into his home on the Hopi reservation. Her mother-in-law was Priscilla Namingha, a well-known potter and descendant of the famous Hopi potter Nampeyo of Hano.

Ida observed Priscilla making pottery and was moved by her beautiful work. Shortly, Priscilla was encouraging Ida to make some pots. Ida started out making small pots which she fired along with Priscilla's work. Her first painted designs were simple Hopi-based patterns. She soon realized she needed to come up with her own designs based on her Navajo heritage.

At that time Bruce McGee owned the historic Keams Canyon Trading Post with its Indian Art Gallery. One day Ida was planning to drive Priscilla there to sell some of her pots when Priscilla suggested that Ida bring some of her own. Bruce bought some of Ida's and asked for more. That's how Ida's career as a potter really began. Shortly after that she and Andrew relocated to her family ranch on Navajo land and she felt more free to be a Navajo potter.

Navajo sand painting designs were a primary inspiration for the images Ida paints on her pots. As some of those are sacred images they need to be depicted exactly as tradition requires. Other images required that Ida have a Night Chant ceremony performed first, then it would be safe for her to depict the figures.

She prefers to dig her clay on the Navajo Reservation. She uses a mix of natural white and yellow clays that result in a peach colored body, a background that best shows off her designs. She often mixes a little of the white clay with wild spinach to create the softer black slip used in some of her images.

The pots are fired outside in the traditional way (with ash and sand), then the pile is mounded over with sheep manure to create an intense heat. The firing process can take all day and can only happen when the weather is just right.

Ida earned Second Place and Best of Class ribbons for her pottery at the 2010 Navajo Nation Fair. Her combination of Hopi pottery techniques and painted Navajo designs makes her pottery truly unique.