[5] Sara Fina was considered the leading potter of Santa Clara in her day, as the master of making exceptionally large, finely polished blackware.

[8] As a child, Tafoya started making small animals out of the clay that her parents had extracted from the Santa Clara land for Sara Fina's works.

Showing promise, her mother encouraged young Margaret to make her own pottery and taught her how to knead the clay and polish shaped pots, as well as where to gather fuel for the firing process.

In the 1930s and 1940s, the Tafoyas would frequently load Margaret's pots into a horse-drawn wagon and travel hundreds of miles to Santa Fe and Taos to sell the works to tourists and traders.

[5] During this time period, the Tafoyas befriended the owner of a resort in Royal Gorge, Colorado who hired them for summer residencies to perform ceremonial dances and sell their pottery to guests.

Margaret continued her mother's tradition of making these exceptionally large pots, with finely polished surfaces and simple carved designs.

[10] Her "bear paw" motif and deeply carved pueblo symbols like the Avanyu (water serpent) and kiva steps around the shoulder of her jars have become signature trademarks of the Tafoya family pottery.