Martha Middleton Lauritzen, from Alton, Illinois, was a student in the art department at Michigan State University under Albert Christ-Janer. In the spring of 1945, she was heavily influenced by a lecture given by Maija Grotell and transferred to Cranbrook Academy of Art in the fall of 1945. She studied ceramics under Grotell, receiving her B.F.A. in the spring of 1947.

In the summer of 1947, Middleton married Cranbrook art student Frederick Lauritzen and became Grotell’s summer teaching assistant. She continued to study, receiving her M.F.A. in June 1948. After taking the summer of 1948 off, Lauritzen continued to work as Grotell’s summer assistant through 1952.

One of Lauritzen’s accomplishments as a potter came when she “fell upon the beginnings of the fact that copper could be used” in glazes. Grotell took Lauritzen’s initial findings and developed the beautiful copper blue glazes used on her series of blue pieces in the 1950’s. In 1954, with the assistance of Grotell, Lauritzen submitted an article on “Stoneware Copper Blue Glazes” to Ceramics Monthly magazine that was never published.

Lauritzen was highly influenced by the work and teachings of Maija Grotell. Even after her family moved to Los Angeles in 1960, Lauritzen continued to remain close friends with Grotell. After giving birth to her second child, Lauritzen retired from the art world to become a full-time mother. In 1990, after her husband’s death, Lauritzen moved to Pioche, Nevada where she opened a small antiquarian book shop called The Book Mine.