Creative Spring Genes

In the next few posts I will be laying groundwork to familiarize you with a few of the creative people in my family, and the heirlooms I've aquired. Am filled with lovely childhood memories surrounded by all of the gorgeous things my mother and aunts gathered, collected, meticulously cared for, and creatively made by hand. However, I have no room for them all... i.e., they literally cannot be contained!

Before many of these heirlooms are sold and pass to other owners, I want to make a photographic journal of their careful collections, and creative exploits; to record for myself and remaining family a virtual scrapbook of sorts. If we can't keep all of the items, at least we will have stories and photos that accompany some of them. "Ah...lest we forget."

In doing this... I hope you, the reader, will better understand some of the items I'm listing at AngeeArt on Etsy which now contains a gallery of vintage and antique. If you find anything you have an affinity for within these photos, (not listed there)...let me know and I'll make a listing there especially for you.

SISTER...
LUCILLE
LeMASTER LILES
My Aunt Lucy (we called her Sister) loved creating anything ceramic. She gave us all ceramic gifts as they formed from her hands, and sprouted from her kiln. I've consumed many a cup of coffee from mugs with her stamp on the bottom. But this was not her only passion, she also collected antiques, was a recorded country song writer, sang harmony with my mother and me, published a book of poetry, and crocheted up a storm in her off time.

After "Sister" retired from Kraft Foods, (she was a nutritionist in the cafeteria at the plant in Atlanta) she moved from Georgia to Florida to be close to my mom and our family. My mother's oldest sister, she was 23 and married, when my mother the baby of the family was born. Mama always called her Sister. Unable to have her own children, Lucy (as her friends called her) sorta "adopted" and raised my mom. After my brothers and I were born, she pretty much functioned all of our lives, as grandmother. My youngest brother was the only one who didn't call her Sister... he called her "Grammy." (my grandmother died when mom was 18)

So, in 1974, Sister brought all of her entire household of antiques from Atlanta, rented a little house in a non-residential area, and sold them all, except those rare, unusual wonders she loved. When she died in 1985 at the age of 84, all of her unfinished ceramics, crochet booties, extensive antique collections, old china, and remaining antique furniture... passed to my mother.

Keep watch! There are many more things to come, some of which I will need the world's help to identify and establish value. I'd hate to sell something for $5 that's worth $5,000.