Clay Times Three: The Tale of Three Nashville, Indiana, Potteries

Martz Potteries

Martz Potteries
47 Karl Martz at his wheel at Batchfield Cabin, early 1937. Photo by Frank Hohenberger. Karl Martz Pottery, 1935–1942 Karl Martz’s experiences at Brown County Pottery were of life-shaping importance. He desperately wanted to be a working potter and experiment with the chemistry of glazes and the mystery of their transformation in the kiln, yet he realized very quickly that the daily grind of repetitive production was not his destiny. He learned what he didn’t want to do. So in 1935, Karl took two leaps. He married his sweetheart, Becky Brown, and he began working for himself, making his own kind of pottery. Karl and Becky’s early years Karl was born in Columbus, Ohio, June 24, 1912, the oldest of three children of Velorus and Amy Lee Kidwell Martz. Later came siblings Martha and Robert. His mother was a pianist and amateur photographer who developed and printed her own photos; his father was first a teacher, then a high school principal. When Velorus was offered a position on the faculty of Indiana University’s School of Education in 1925, the family was off to Bloomington. Karl graduated from Bloomington High School in 1929. He was a member of the drama club, called the Proscenium Players, and was president of the Hi-Y Federation, affiliated with the YMCA. He also worked on “The Gothic” yearbook staff, specializing in art. In the fall of 1929 Karl enrolled at Indiana University, joining Delta Chi fraternity. If he’d had his way, he would have skipped the Greek experience, but his father felt it was an important part of campus life — one that he had missed. Karl could thank his father for the nudge, because that’s where he met his future wife. Becky had agreed to attend a dance there with her cousin, Verlin “Bud” Miller because he needed to bring a date to attend himself.1 Becky was 16, Karl a freshman. “We didn’t think too much of each other at that point,” she said.2 Margaret Rebecca Brown was born in Bowling Green, Ky., Sept. 14, 1914, to Edward Stinson Brown and Golden Glee Ragle. She preferred her middle name and later changed the spelling to Rebekah. The family moved to Bloomington, where her brother Edward was born in 1920. Her mother passed away there in 1930, when Becky was 16. Becky’s father worked for a time as a manager of a savings and loan in Bloomington during the Depression, and later worked for the YMCA and the Red Cross. But for most of his life and into his 70s he was a bricklayer, doing much of his work in Indianapolis and taking pride in the many buildings he helped construct. At Bloomington High School, Becky was active in many organizations, including the Blue Triangle service club, where she was vice president, and Proscenium Players. She was also associate editor of “The Gothic” and in the National Honor Society. After graduating in 1932, she enrolled at IU and attended for two and a half years, working part time for the university while studying for a degree in English. Karl’s 1933 degree from IU was in chemistry, but he took as many art classes as he could squeeze in. Ceramics was not offered at the time. His black and white linoleumcut prints are examples of his well-rounded artistic talents; they are both simple and dramatic. Karl and Becky’s wedding invitation featured his linoleum cut of the couple in profile silhouette. They were married at his parents’ home on Jan. 30, 1935, with her grandfather John Ragle, former pastor of the Nashville Methodist Church, performing the ceremony. January was a frigid time to set up housekeeping in Nashville, and Karl’s $5 a week salary at Brown County Pottery didn’t do much to raise their comfort level. Initially, they rented a single room south of town from artist Musette Stoddard. She ran the Hill Top Camp there, which was closed in the winter. That March, Karl joined two Nashville figures, Frank Hohenberger and Portia Sperry, in making presentations on their work at the American Association of University Women conference at IU, Bloomington. Frank, described as “one of the leading pictorial photographers in Indiana, probably the middle west,”3 was the featured speaker and discussed his experiences and the landscape photographs 48
CLAY TIMES THREE This 1936 carved green bowl with yellow glaze inside, 3.5in tall and 7.5in diameter...