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Mossy Creek, GA ~ Lin
Craven ~ Pottery ~ Jugs
Information:
Local potter uses technology as tool
By Carolyn Mathews
Lin Craven’s family has been shaping art from White County
clay for nine generations. Craven's hands-on techniques now
guide the movements of human hands the world over, as she
lends her expertise to the computer generation.
Craven is a ninth-generation potter from Mossy Creek, where
Cravens and Meaders and Dorseys and Pitchfords crafted syrup
pitchers and kraut jars, stoneware churns and "little brown
jugs." She was featured online in 2000 as part of the Local
Legacies project of the 2000 Bicentennial of the Library of
Congress. Mossy Creek pottery could be found as an example
of southern folklife on the Bicentennial Website.
Craven will again share the area's folk pottery history in
The New Georgia Encyclopedia, an electronic production that
will be available to every school and public library in the
state. It will be also be available to anyone, anywhere with
Internet access. The encyclopedia will be launched in
October 2003.
The first state online encyclopedia is a project of the
Georgia Humanities Council and is sponsored by the State of
Georgia, the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation, the Georgia
Power Foundation, BellSouth, the Peyton Anderson Foundation,
James Cox Foundation, UPS Foundation, the National Endowment
for the Humanities and the Historic Chattahoochee
Commission. It will cover topics on history music, art,
business, sports, science and medicine and will be
continually revised and updated.
Craven was recommended for the encyclopedia by Dr. John
Burrison, an English and folklore professor at Georgia State
University. Burrison wrote "Brothers in Clay: The Story of
Georgia Folk Pottery."
"The Cravens are one of the oldest pottery families in White
County," Burrison said. Two Craven brothers brought the art
to the Mossy Creek area from Randolph County, N.C. in 1825.
A third brother, Isaac Newton Craven, went on to Atlanta.
"He established the first known pottery in the city limits
of Atlanta. It stood right where Sparks Hall, a classroom
building at Georgia State, now stands," Burrison said. The
first known Potter in Lin Craven’s family was Peter Craven,
who lived in colonial Orange County (now Randolph County)
from 1712-1792.
Burrison said the pottery community at Mossy Creek grew to
be one of the two largest in the state, with over 80
potteries. "I don't think it was so much that the clay was
that high a quality, but it was an attractive way to make
some extra money after the Civil War when money was hard to
come by," he said.
After the depression era of the 1930s, many Mossy Creek
families stopped making pottery, including the Cravens. The
Meaders families was one of the few that continued with the
tradition.
Although her family had made pottery for generations, Lin
Craven's great grandfather, John Hicks Craven (1860-1950)
was the last potter in the family.
"Lin had heard about the pottery tradition in her family all
her life, and when her kids grew up she decided to learn how
to do it," Burrison said. Craven learned the technique from
master potter Bobby Ferguson and his wife, Mary of
Gillsville. "I'd always worked with my hands and I wanted to
try something new," Craven said.
"When she started, Ferguson told her to learn to throw one
design and stick with it until she perfected it, and she
picked one of the most difficult ones, a ring jug," Burrison
said.
Craven said ring jugs are her favorite, and she alters the
traditional designs to make decorative pieces. In the olden
days, ring jugs were used as water flasks. They could be
carried over the arm or attached to the hame knob on a
mule’s harness. Burrison said that there were even ring jugs
glazed on one side so that the sun would reflect, keeping
the water cool.
One of Craven’s ring jugs, shaped like a rattlesnake, is
part of a permanent display at the Atlanta History Museum
entitled, "Shaping Tradition: Folk Arts in a Changing
South."
Burrison said that while today's potters use many of the old
techniques, they integrate new, time saving and
design-improving technological shortcuts as well. Pottery
enthusiasts today look for the decorative value of the piece
than for the usefulness, he said. Craven says she strives
for color in her designs. "It has to talk to me," she said.
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