Lillian Pit comes from an American Indian tribe that is native to the Columbia River Gorge and has been praised as one of the great innovators within her own tribal tradition. At age 35, she began working with clay as a medium, using Asian techniques like raku and anagama to create a series of masks. Since then she has also worked with bronze, precious metals, wood, copper, glass, shell, leather, feathers, and a wide variety of other materials.