52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – Week 49: Craft – The Crafty People in Our Family

This is my second year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow. I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails Into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.

My mother was a very creative person. When I was young, she had a painting studio in the backyard of our home on East 9th Street in Pittsburg. Her favorite subjects were still lifes. I wrote about my mother on the anniversary of her 85th birthday.

She also loved to do crafts and make things out of discarded or used items. She made bowls from old 78 rpm records that she melted over coffee cans in the oven and then sprayed them with gold paint. She made Christmas trees from cardboard egg cartons, painting them gold, green, or silver, and gluing in small items such as bells, angels, etc.  Here is one:

Every year, she decorated a large apple box for Valentine's Day that our classroom used as a mailbox for Valentine cards from each of our classmates. I wish I had photos of some of these items.

She probably got the creative gene from both her parents. Her father, Tom J Johnston, was a carpenter and made lots of different kinds of furniture that can be seen in 1940s and 50s photos in the inside of their home.

Her mother, Pansy Lancaster Johnston, was a talented seamstress, who made her own clothes and did alterations for both men and women as an occupation. Later in life she crocheted blankets and was still embroidering T-shirts well into her 90s.

My sisters are creative, too, employing painting, crafting, and graphic design. I love photography. One daughter is active in costume design in a theater group she is in. The other paints and does graphic design for others. I have a niece who designs architectural toys, as she’s only 10.

I guess we’re a pretty crafty family!

Copyright © 2019 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.