Luling Icehouse Pottery creates new and attractive objects out of old things. They take ancient clay from the earth and make beautiful pots and vases. Their studio is in an old red brick building that served as an ice factory for nearly 60 years.
Charley and Holly Pritchard are recent transplants from North Carolina who opened their shop in Luling because of the small-town atmosphere and proximity to Austin and San Antonio. From the first time they visited the area seven years ago the husband-and-wife team felt the mystical pull of Texas in the brush land east of San Marcos.
“That first trip was a great adventure,” Charley says. “The area had a romantic appeal for Holly and me.” Driving down the bumpy country roads outside of Luling to go to a friend’s studio, the air was literally filled with the smell of Texas. “The sulfur smell made us think of oil and cattle in Texas,” he says with a laugh. They even saw a longhorn on the trip.
The Pritchards decided that Luling had the potential to become a thriving artists’ colony and they wanted to be a part of it. After studying pottery making in the Seagrave, N.C., area, Charley mastered the distinctive style that identifies the eastern base of the Great Smoky Mountains as one of the oldest pottery manufacturing regions in the country.
“I’ve brought a regional flavor to another region,” Charley says. His bowls, pitchers, plates, and other items reflect a simple, yet elegant style. “My style is to throw efficiently,” he says. This method hearkens back to the technique perfected by the Owens family of Seagrave and results in a simpler design with less waste in the manufacturing process. Holly, a graphic artist by profession, decorates many of his wheel-thrown pieces with intricate drawings of cattail, calla lily, and English ivy motifs that accentuate the simple designs of the vases.
Charley also apprenticed with Mark Hewitt, a renowned British potter who had settled in Pittsboro, N.C. “From [Hewitt] I learned a high and proud standard, a British standard,” Charley says. “Also an attention to the fine detail. For instance, what makes a nice handle from a human aspect.”
While his pottery is beautiful in earth tones or in bright colors, they are meant to be functional. “I haven’t seen anything like it in the area,” Charley says. Another example of his unique style is the Owens Cobalt Blue glaze he brought from the East Coast.
Central Texas has a proud tradition of making fine pottery. Many master artisans reside around the area to produce a distinct style, much like an appellation in wine terminology. That proud tradition goes back to Wilson Pottery of Seguin. Formed by freed slaves from South Carolina in the 1890s, the company produced functional earthenware similar to the Seagrave methods, Charley says.
Charley is busy integrating their adopted state into his work. “We like to incorporate local materials into our product as much as possible,” he says. The majority of his clay comes from a mine near Tyler in Northeast Texas. He recently took a trip west of San Antonio to get some clay used to make the famous D’Hannis bricks. Plans call for experimenting with adding the ash from the local barbecue pits to the glaze to see if it produces unique colors.
The Pritchards’ move to Luling could be seen as one big experiment. The old icehouse building east of the central business district hopes to lure travelers off the highway traveling between Austin and Houston. Thus far, the locals have all been very supportive in the effort to establish an art gallery in a town known more for watermelon and pump jacks decorated with cartoon characters.
Artists also showing their work at the gallery include Hal Shipley, who makes stained glass sun catchers out of cut glass dinner plates. Austin jewelry maker Jan Meeks has a showcase of her work at the gallery. The artist who introduced the Pritchards to Luling, Paula Michelle, shows her paintings, ceramics, and sculptures. The gallery collection is rounded out by work by artist Jane Matthews, Luling potters Cathy Sherwood and David Schussler, and local artists Anna Cantu and Rudy Cantu. One wall is covered with landscape photographs by Holly. The gallery hopes to become a focal point for local artists and to hold an annual art festival in the lot next to the building.
All of the heavy industrial equipment was moved out of the ice factory soon after it closed down in 1983. At one time it was a part of the Mission Party Ice Company’s string of a dozen plants between San Antonio and Houston. “The building has been a part of the community for many years. That’s why we chose the name for our gallery,” Charley says.
The building still has the atmosphere of a factory with the north and east wall filled with windows and the rumble of an occasional freight train on the nearby tracks. All around the gallery space filled with bright art pieces are the tools of the potter’s trade. A visit to the art space is a mixed adventure back in history with a walk through modern creations.
Luling Icehouse Pottery is open Wed-Sun, 10am-6pm, at 1115 E. Davis St. For more information, call 830/875-6282. The gallery will be closed from Dec. 22 through the end of January.
Coming up this weekend …
“All Aboard the Christmas Express” Celebration in downtown Rockdale is highlighted by a parade, Santa’s workshop, arts & crafts, and lighting the Christmas tree, Dec. 1-2. 512/446-2030.
Sights & Sounds of Christmas in San Marcos presents Santa’s village and a live nativity scene in the park along the river, Dec. 1-2. 512/393-8430.
Weinachten in Fredericksburg is a Christmas celebration patterned after those in Germany with a market, parade, and lights. Open weekends, Dec. 1-3, 8-10. 830/997-6523 or www.fredericksburg-texas.com.
Dickens on the Strand brings a Victorian Christmas to the port city of Galveston, Dec. 2-3. 800/351-4237 or www.galvestonhistory.org.
Main Street Bethlehem in Burnet depicts the village where Jesus was born, Dec. 1-3, 8-10. 512/556-3307.
Lights of the Blackland sparkle in Bartlett, Coupland, Elgin, Granger, Hutto, Taylor, Thorndale, and Thrall, through Jan. 1. 512/365-8485.
This article appears in December 1 • 2000.
