Born on December 29, 1950, the son of Andrew and Juanita Tenorio, on the Santo Domingo Pueblo, Robert remembers watching his paternal grandmother, Andrea Ortiz, make dough bowls, water jars, and other pottery. Though he loved dabbling clay, when he enrolled in the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, the ceramics classes were full. At that time, jewelry making was popular, and that is where he would up.

“I wanted to make jewelry to help with the family, but I was always going into the ceramics area, stealing their clay, potting away. One day, a pottery teacher, Ohille Loloma (wife of famous jeweler, Charles Loloma) caught me making a bowl. She helped me change my focus to pottery. I’ve been pottin...