It was 20 years ago today...

[offcntr]

Actually, more like 23 years. Found this picture in an album we brought back from Denise's mom's house. Her dad, Del, took it on their first visit to Oregon, in what must have been 1994. This was our first reserved space, on the East lawn of the park blocks, our second year selling. I remember struggling to sell pots there, and looking at this display, I don't wonder why.

It's a mess. Pots are arranged more or less at random, there's not much coherence in the designs. Way too many animal banks and blue iris pots. Pie plates and bowls stacked up so you can't see what's painted in them. Which is probably more irises. And Woo's Blue glaze on everything, even though it pinholes like crazy if you're not careful. Geez, what was I thinking?

Basically, I was trying stuff out. Throwing everything against the booth wall to see what stuck. I can barely make out a blue cat painted in one of the bowls; and a very awkwardly painted squirrel on a jar. That long, skinny thing is supposed to be a salmon baker, with fish painted in the bottom. It's way too small for a whole salmon, and the wrong shape for filets.

I know there are chickadees painted on a tall pasta jar, because I never did sell it; it's sitting in my cupboard full of spaghetti right now. I count a dozen different kinds of animal banks. The number doubled later on, then got trimmed back to the eight best sellers I still make. Teapots with ridiculous hoop handles that are less about actual function and more about showing off how big I could pull a handle.

Some things haven't changed. Pig and elephant banks, stegosaur and brontosaurs. (The triceratops has been replace by T. rex.) The display bench is still in the booth, as are the shelves, though they're on the left these days. I also cut the one large folding ladder-support down to two smaller ones, as it swayed dangerously whenever anyone bumped it in this version.

The bears definitely haven't changed. That's Bigfoot and Benjamin, the exact same two who were in the booth with us last Saturday.