Carl, Hattie

Hattie Carl was a Hopi-Tewa potter who lived from about 1866 to 1960. She lived next door to her sister, potter Ethel Muchvo, for most of her life. Hattie married Edwin Carl, a Hopi man who often interpreted services at the First Mesa Baptist Church. She became a Christian after they were married and that precluded her from participating in any of her tribe’s ceremonies.

Hattie may have learned how to make pottery while she was growing up but she was only active making pottery from about 1900 to 1951. Back in those early days, most of the potters couldn’t read or write. Some of them were encouraged to develop an icon, a hallmark, to identify their pieces and differentiate them from the rest. Hattie was one of the first Hopi-Tewa potters to sign her pieces using a hallmark. Hattie’s was a flower and raincloud design. She may have started using it in the early 1920s.

Life at Hopi was very hard during the 1930s and Hattie knew the value of a signature. Even with an excellent reputation for her pottery, her family almost starved to death several times during the Great Depression.

Hattie didn’t start producing pottery until she was in her late 30s and her children were grown. She was in her 60s when she first painted her hallmark on a piece of pottery. She stopped making pottery when she was about 85 years old.