While serving in the military during the mid-1960s, Stuart Proctor was stationed in Long Beach, California near one of his aunts. She happened to be a retired home economics teacher, and she taught Proctor how to weave cane for chair backs and bottoms. A very intricate craft, it provided Proctor a relaxing activity that he […]
Geraldine Nash is a native of Claiborne County, growing up on a farm outside of Port Gibson. She was one of eleven children and her mother was an active quilter. She quilted on a regular basis in order to create covers for her children’s beds. Nash did some quilting as a child with her mother,
Mason is a native of Pensacola, Florida, but has been living in Mississippi since 1991. In the late 1980s, she met a first-generation Ukrainian American woman who was living in Pensacola and was a master of pysanky, the Ukrainian egg decorating tradition. Mason worked with the woman from 1986 through 1989 to learn the tradition
Bill Mason grew up in Gulfport. He joined the Navy after high school, then attended The University of Southern Mississippi, from which he graduated in 1956. He’s been married 53 years. He and his wife have two children, now a stockbroker and a nurse. Bill had always been interested in woodworking. He retired in Hattiesburg
Although he has been a resident of Mississippi for only three years, Edward Jones has made the buildings found in the southwest part of the state a central focus of his work. Jones was born in Helena, Arkansas in 1917. When he was four years old, his family joined the migration of southern African Americans
Bessie Johnson is a native of the Tibbee community just south of West Point. Both of her parents were active in traditional crafts. Her father wove chair bottoms and baskets and her mother quilted. Johnson was fascinated with their work and began making baskets herself over thirty years ago. She creates them using a variety
Larry House is a master blacksmith living and working in Picayune. His studio, Dragon’s Watch Forge and Foundry is located on the Pechochen Swamp and specializes in hand-crafted weapons including knives, swords, daggers, and axes. In addition to forging steel, Dragon’s Watch also casts pewter and bronze. Larry’s pieces are largely sold at renaissance fairs
Colby Horton has always loved music and finds building fine guitars very satisfying. He lives in Tiplersville, a tiny town in far northern Mississippi. He was born in nearby Ripley, where his father (whose family is from this immediate area) has a small veterinary hospital. His mother also helps out at the clinic now that
Bill Holland was born in Biloxi, Mississippi in 1946 and grew up in its Back Bay neighborhood. The area was home to many of the city’s boatyards and seafood canning factories. His mother worked in the plants and his father served as a schooner captain. Holland grew up playing around the various boatyards in his
