Alvina was born on August 4, 1954 at Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico between the Jemez and Salado Rivers.  She is a member of the Jemez Sun Clan.  Alvina was eight years old when she began helping her potter mother paint and polish pots.  She has been know as an award winning Jemez potter for over 20 years.

Alvina’s pots are all made using the traditional coil method.  She digs her own clay on the Jemez Pueblo and prepares it by hand for the body of pots and the slips.  She fires in the traditional manner using cedar wood.  She achieves her finish by polishing the clay body with a stone until it is smooth and glossy.  This means hours of work to achieve the finish, after the pot is formed, and before it is fired.  It is the process of firing that changes the grey-brown clay to the soft red seen in the finished ware.

Her red polished melon bowls with teardrop shaped openings are unique to the artist.  She also created a style of pottery with a radiating feather motif incised on the upper body of the jar.  The lower body of the jar may be painted in a fine line geometric pattern or incised.

She is the daughter of Nick and Felipita (Nonche) Yepa.  Her grandparents are Frank and Louise Fraqua Toledo and Cristino and Juanita Fraguq Yepa.  Alvina and her mother mentored her niece Marcella Yepa who has becom a well known Jemez potter.

In 1986 Alvina began entering her work in the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts at the Santa Fe Indian Market.  By 1987 she had won First Place and Best of Division for her sgraffito pottery.

Her pottery has been exhibited by the Booth Western Art Museum and by the Heard Museum.  Her work is also featured in “Southern Pueblo Pottery:  2000 Artist Biographies” by Gregory Scaaf and in “ Pueblo and Navajo Contermporary Pottery” 2^nd edition by Berger and Shiffer.

She signs her pottery “Alvina Yepa, Jemez”.