Martha Cowden was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1942 and began serious art study upon graduation from high school.
Her work combines hand built pottery with fiber coiling, a Native American basketry technique. She believes texture and shape are important parts of her work to help her achieve a variety of effects.
She relies completely on her sense of touch to create one-of-a-kind art. She enjoys the entire process used to create her hand-built pottery pieces. Clay, natural fibers, and hand spun yarns are used in various combinations to achieve various effects. Texture is a very important part of her work and manipulating clay helps to achieve this.
