Spring brings inspiration

The first Madison County potter for today is...

Amelia Stamps. She also isn't from around here, but instead hails from Kentucky.  Her web site is http://www.ameliastamps.com/

I was curious where she got some plastic cup covers or lids, which turn a ceramic mug into a portable coffee cup, much as is given out from every coffee shop ready to go in a car.  She said I could find them on line, as well as a little stretching plastic sleeve which makes the mug more easy to grip.  What a great way to save some paper, for all those "green conscious people." Just carry your own mug into the coffee shop, and you can sip out of it at your pleasure.

East Fork Pottery

The next booth was East Fork Pottery...which was pretty crowded.  John K. Vigeland was one of the potters, and Alex Mattise is another member of the guild.  The East Fork Pottery can be accessed by www.eastforkpottery.com. And it is in the Marshall area of NC also.  Don't miss the very sweet video on their site which has some incredible footage of inside the wood firing of their kiln.

Which ancestor shall I share today?

The Conn family crest.

John Thomas Conn was born on 9 Apr 1790 in Plum Creek, Jefferson County, Kentucky, where his father had moved from Virginia.  John Conn and his father moved to Missouri, where his father settled and died.  John then moved with his second wife and whildren to Gonzales, Gonzales County, Texas, by 1837  His daughter was Hannah Conn Booth, my great great great grandmother on my mother's side of the family.  So John Thomas Conn would have been a 4 times great grandfather.

This man moved a whole lot of family each time they took off for new horizons.  But as far as I know, his daughter Hannah Conn Booth didn't go to Texas until after she married William Booth in Indiana, which is where her uncle may have been living.

Conestoga wagon

Considering how far these places were from each other, they must have been set up well to travel those distances...by wagon loads.  I shared a bit of research about the wagons HERE. And I included a lot more history of Hannah Conn Booth on that post as well.

But back to today's life and some more pottery!

Joey Sheehan had the free raffle pot...and of course I signed up for it. They haven't contacted me yet.

Joey's studio is in Asheville, NC - very close to Marshall.  Here's his web page into. http://www.meltingmountainpottery.com/about.html