Delmar Polacca

Delmar Polacca was born in 1959 and is the son of Tom Polacca, renowned Hopi potter from the village of Polacca, on Hopi First Mesa. The Nampeyo-Polacca Family is now in its fifth generation of potters and is listed in the book "Fourteen Families in Pueblo Pottery." Delmar works in the same style his father Tom created, that of deeply carved scenes of Hopi culture. His carvings are very precise and refined. Delmar learned his techniques watching his grandmother Fannie, his father Tom, his aunts, uncles and cousins. He invented (with the help of his young daughter) the marbling of Red and Light clay, which is a very difficult technique. Delmar has been making pottery since 1993 and has already won many awards at the Hopi Show at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, the Museum of Northern Arizona and the Mesa Verde Show and most recently the Zuni Art Show.

Although a full-time potter, Delmar still returns to First Mesa on the Hopi reservation over fifty miles away to gather rock deposits. He paints with wild spinach juice. He constructs his pots with handmade coils and fires them 2 to 4 hours using horse manure. In the painting of the pots he expresses the history of the Hopi people. Delmar has won two best of show awards at the Zuni Indian art show and the southwest Indian art show. Delmar has won many other awards through the years.