Slightly Off Center

This is not who you think it is.

Got a visit this morning to the studio door from Raj, the black and white possibly stray, possibly just a mooching neighborhood cat. I rubbed his back and scratched his ears, put some food out for him in the carport. And went back to packing plates in bubble wrap, preparatory to shipping.

Then, when I opened the door to got get boxes out of the shed, I saw this kitty slinking around the trash bins at the base of the ramp.

If you look closer, you see they're wearing a pink collar, with jingles. They're a classic tuxedo pattern, but don't have the little band of white around the muzzle.

They're also way more timid. Though I pspsps'd and held out my hand, they wouldn't approach closer than arm's length. When I turned around to get another cup of kibble, they'd come right up to the doorway, but shied away when I came over. I poured out the cup at the top of the ramp, and they came up to eat, as long ask I kept my distance. Stayed there long enough to let me bring out Denise, on tiptoe, to see.

Later, I looked out to find both of them out by the blackberries. It's pretty obvious they're family; they have the same shortish, club-tipped tail. But Raj is much the smaller of the two; I may have to rethink my gender assumptions.

Postcript:

Finished restocking the van after dark, and was putting the last boxes away in the shed, when I looked out to see this:

A wholly different cat, here to clean up the last of the kibble. Also shy, watched me for a bit as I stood in the doorway, but buggered off when I tried to take a picture, so you can't see that it also has the distinctive tail.

But I gotta admire their commitment to the bit!

This place is right around the corner from the optometrists--a good way to test your new prescription, I'd bet. This is only part of the display, and I don't think the wrought iron fence is there just for Halloween.

Went for a walk yesterday while the kiln was firing, looking for leaves. Denise has got an experiment going, trying to preserve the color and flexibility of fall leaves using a glycerin solution, and what we have around our place is mostly red oak. The neighborhood around Club Mud is much more diverse, with elm, walnut, sweet gum and maple, including these lovely specimens.

I did do a capybara!

Now we'll see if anyone ever asks for it again.

Took an order through my Instagram from another artist, wanting a pair of dinner salad bowls for a wedding present, featuring the couples' cats. She sent a dozen reference photos, requested that both be on each bowl, different poses. I made three, to pick out the best two.

They're all kinda adorable.

When you have a reserved booth at the Saturday Market, there are rules. You have to check in by Thursday any week you sell. You have to arrive at the Park Blocks before 8:30 am to claim your space. And you have to sell at least once every month, and a minimum of 12 Saturdays, to keep your space. If you've met all the requirements, you can take one month off--a "vacation" month--from selling at any point in the season.

I usually take November as my vacation month, so I can spend time in the studio getting ready for Clayfolk and Holiday Market, which means I still have to do at least one Saturday in October. Last Saturday was it.

It was definitely fall weather--still dark when I got up, foggy and cold when I left home. The sun was out when I got to downtown, but it didn't really get warm in the booth, or indeed anywhere shady. My neighbor Jess was in sweatshirt, leggings, woolly hat and scarf, gloves, and was still shivering. I wasn't quite so cold, but definitely appreciated scarf and fingerless gloves setting up.

Got back from Farmers Market to hear someone had already been in the booth looking for me. He returned while I was putting produce in the cooler, picked out a butterfly bowl, and fortunately paid cash, as I hadn't even opened Square yet. After that promising start, things were dead slow for a good bit of the morning. I did sell four watercolor cards to Rose, a regular customer, and a few small sales thereafter. Sold a catfood dish to a college student named Emmy, who confided that she was making pottery at the Craft Center. Pulled up some pictures on her phone to show me--she's making nice work, including a really gorgeous copper red vase (and another "red" vase in the more common apple greed tones. Copper is fussy).

A group of four young women visiting from Austin, TX stopped in to talk and shop. Three of them got pots, the fourth took a card to contact me after she got home. My next customers also turned out to be from Austin. Guess it was an austintaceous day.

I was still under $300 by lunchtime, but then sold a frog bank, an elephant bank and an incense dragon in quick succession, bringing me to $400 and a page turn just before 1 pm.

It was kind of an SFnal day. First, I spotted a woman who looked like a character from a 70s Saturday morning live action show--red lamé jumpsuit, thistle-colored bowl-cut hair, like some sort of knock-off Power Ranger, or possibly villain from same. Later in the afternoon, a pair of dinosaur riders came galloping by. I hailed them long enough to introduce a Tinysaurus bank, which promptly got eaten by the smaller mount.

Sold a coffee cone to Ricky, of Ricky-and-Jasper, regulars. Took an order for soup bowl and dessert plate with sloths from Hanna, a present for her brother. Had two different people ask if I did capybara, one of them a little girl with a capy stuffy in her backpack. Think I'll have to start.

Was just under $600 as the day came to a close, when a woman picked out a pair of toddler bowls and a watercolor card, bringing me to just over $650 for the day. I wrote my check to Market, and was half packed up, when a woman popped in, bought a bunnies teapot and baking dish, along with a squirrel painted mug, paying cash, one last hurrah for Saturday Market 2026.

Guess who has two thumbs and is doing the Inktober challenge again this year? 

Well, duh.

Made my own sketchbook again, of course. This year, it only has 36 pages, not 48 like previous years, so I'm not committed to drawing so far into November. 

Eight years and still going.

Clay Fest opens on a Friday evening, so we get Thursday afternoon and all of Friday to set up. I came down after lunch on Thursday, had the basic booth structure up by 4 pm, including all the grid panels, plate hangers, and bowl stands. Since it usually takes me under an hour to put out pots at Market, I decided to just bull through and get everything out, so on Friday morning I just had to put out shelf signage and move the empty boxes to the van.

Friday noon is the artists' potluck. During the Refreshments Chair report at the last Steering Committee meeting, Tea, always a joker, quipped that he should require me to bring two pies this year.

So I figured, what the hell?

Still wasn't enough; we blew through both of them, and folks who didn't put a slice on their plate first didn't get one. Good pie though.

The show opened at 5 pm, and for once, I wasn't in a back room generating award certificates. The new gallery chair decided to print them in advance and just hand-letter them. Not as professional-looking, but it meant I could be in my booth at the busiest part of the show. And I mean busy. We estimated 1800 people came through the door in the first hour. Dual checkout stations with meanders on opposite sides of the hall, and the sales lines still overlapped by the gallery. Fortunately, the bar-code scanners helped speed up the process, although they only record artist; still need to type in the price by hand. The real efficiency happens behind the scenes; Square automatically tallies each artist's sales for us.

I made my first sale within ten minutes of opening--a young couple bee-lined to my booth and took the large whales cookie jar. They'd seen it on the Clay Fest Instagram feed, screen-capped it, and came early to be sure they got it. The second large cookie jar, painted with pandas, went about a half-hour later. After that, things got a little blurry, I kept busy pulling out more restock from the back and talking with customers. I was working solo--Denise had gotten an eye treatment earlier in the afternoon, so was at home recovering.

We sold a lot of bigger stuff--both large covered casseroles, two teapots, the big oval octopus platter, early Saturday morning. Fewer tall mugs and pie plates than I expected, but a couple of colanders, a batter bowl, several bakers. And a lot of stew mugs, dessert plates, dinner plates. About half a box of painted mugs, and quite a few soup and toddler bowls. Three frog banks and a chicken, two incense dragons.

Lots of familiar faces--Hailey, who's bought from me at Market previously, stopped in Friday night, just looking. The Saturday Market General Manager and her daughter were through, apparently recruiting for Holiday Market; I guess they haven't filled the show yet. Claude and Hannah Offenbacher, old friends from KLCC, stopped to say hello, and MIchiyo and Andrew, the Japanese potter and her Aussie husband, came through on a farewell visit. They're moving to Japan at the end of the month.

I had two morning sales shifts, Saturday and Sunday. Both days started slow, while people cruised the aisles, so I had plenty of time to draw animals on the wrapping paper for about a half hour (we then use it to wrap the next customer's pots, giving them bonus art). Afterwards, sales got steady, and we had to concentrate on our jobs, though it never got as over-loaded as Friday night. I was on one of two hybrid cash/card stations, the rest being card only, got to do some split sales, cash and card, and even got to process a gift certificate (we give them to the garden club volunteers who make us flower arrangements Friday morning). Only saw one or two of my own pots come through, though other cashiers told me they saw plenty. Denise was covering the booth for me, doing her best to pull out more pots, though she had to recruit a neighbor to replace the octopus platter; her shoulders don't cooperate. We had late lunch in the artist lounge, up on the stage, and she left early Saturday to runs some errands which may or may not be related to my birthday this Wednesday. I don't ask.

Saturday evening, a mother and young daughter stopped in the booth. Daughter was pretty shy, even when I brought out my bear, so I asked her if she wanted to pet a dinosaur (bank, of course). She petted the T. Rex and the Stego, and then when I brought down the elephant, she asked I she could sing me an elephant song in Thai. Oh yes, of course, so she sang Chang, Chang...[many more words I can't possibly reproduce]. Pretty little song, and it reminded me of Chang Dee, a baby elephant at the Portland Zoo some years ago, whose name meant "Good Elephant" in Thai. I told her about it, and asked if that meant "Chang" meant elephant. She confirmed it, and we parted smiling. And mom, who'd been looking at mugs all the while, came back later without her to pick out and elephant mug.

Had a customer at my station Sunday morning who said she'd taken a class from me at the Craft Center, years ago. She'd then got an alumni pass to work on her own, became a clay artist, now has work in the Freer Gallery. Very cool interaction. Another Craft Center friend showed up Sunday afternoon. Jason had been a student while I was there, came back as a resident potter after I left. The last time I saw him, his son was about elbow-high. This time, he was taller than his dad, and starting to look at colleges. I asked what he wanted to study, and when he said linguistics, I told him about the Lingthusiasm podcast, and it turned out he was already familiar with both of the hosts. He also plays Uillean pipes, and studies with a piper that I once interviewed on the Saturday Cafe.

The show closed at 5 pm, and we all set about dismantling. Sent Denise to sit in the van and read, while I boxed the pots and took down the shelves. Stuffed the last few boxes and the carpet in van just before 8 pm, and drove home to a supper of planned-over Chicken Tikka.

The show as a whole hit a record high, over $220,000 in sales. I made $3435; after commission it's still a bit more than $3000.

 
The van is loaded, the checklist is checkered, set-up starts at noon tomorrow.

I can hardly wait.

So apparently, Saturday was Red Panda Day? Who knew? I just wanted to post a family portrait. (Red Panda. Giant Panda. Trash Panda.)

Grey and misting a little when I set out from home, though it had stopped by the time I got off Delta Highway, thank the heat island effect. Was predicted to clear up by noon, but didn't, cold and overcast until nearly 3 pm. I'd dressed for it, layers, and my heavy denim barn coat, so I was okay, by my neighbor Chere was just in the cheong-san she'd bought last winter in Vietnam, with slacks and a light overcoat. Wound up borrowing a sweater from her friend Rachel, who sells bleached-pattern leggings. Also borrowed her Square account as she'd forgotten her phone at home, and her aunt wasn't able to bring it down until after doggie yoga, and if that's not the most Eugene Saturday Market sentence I've every typed, I don't know what is.

Students are beginning to drift back in, saw a lot of them with parents; the big flood will come next weekend. Met a couple just in town starting grad school, she was enamored with a puffin tumbler, and he bought a bear cub to match. She's studying African mammals, wants to come back to get an appropriately painted mug for her desk. She'll be spoiled for choice--I have lions, cheetah, rhino, hippo and elephant in stock at the moment

A fellow with a lovely English accent stopped in, said he and his wife had bought dinner plates a couple of years ago, bunnies and elephant, and still used them every day. I remembered the sale, because I was so proud to have my work going overseas. Said he needed to track down his wife to let her know I was here, and they came back later to get a fox and orca plate to join the collection, along with a frog bowl for their daughter, who they were visiting.

A couple of young women came in, one of whom said she'd also seen my work two years ago. She'd been visiting from Scotland, here to see her brother and his girlfriend. Back now to attend the wedding. Her friend was on her first trip to the US, so they'd been having a great time seeing the sights. Saturday Market, of course, but they'd also gone down to Wildlife Safari last week, so we traded stories for a bit. Sold them a couple of watercolor cards to take home.

A mother and daughter of Indian descent came in, and fixed on the elephant small baking dish. You can mix [something I didn't get] in it, and bake in it as well, urged mom. I think daughter was more attracted by the elephant pattern than the function, was very happy when mother bought it for her.

And then they came back a few hours later wanting a deeper bowl as well, and settled on a small mixing crock. Elephant, as well.

Sun came out in time for the end of the Market, and a last-minute casserole sale took me over $800 for the day. Packed up the booth and went to meet Denise at Club Mud to go over to our church's annual Parish Barbecue. Chicken and sausages, three salads and watermelon that, best of all, I didn't have to cook.