offcntr | Anacortes, in brief (Reply)

I'm back home from Anacortes. I've watered the garden, sorted the mail, transcribed the phone messages, triaged the email. Petted the cats. Been roundly snubbed by the cats. Rinse, repeat. And I finally have a little time and brain cells to think back on the weekend.

In a way, it was very similar to past years. We were back in the same spot, literally the first booth you see as you come into the show. This has advantages--we're always easy to find--and drawbacks. Nobody wants to buy from the first booth they go into, until they've seen everything else on offer. Surprisingly, many of them actually do come back, more, I think, for this show than many others. We also make it easier if they do buy, by holding their bags for them until they return. I think we had as many as six laid out in back at one point.

It's also a super easy space for load in and load out, as very few of our neighbors compete for van space, and there's alley access right next to us. On the other hand, we're awfully exposed to wind an weather, no shelter from any direction.

We had weather issues again this year, though not during the show, which was gorgeous. Thursday night, however, between set-up and opening, a storm blew through, wind and rain. We were anticipating it, didn't put anything on the high shelves on either side of the booth, but still found two dessert plates and a creamer broken Friday morning when we opened up. (I say opened; as with our last Anacortes storm, show volunteers opened up the front, back and sided of our booth, to keep it from flapping like a sail.) We wound up taking all the mugs and soup bowls down and boxing them Friday and Saturday night, in case of a recurrence. Still, it could have been way worse.

We saw a lot of familiar faces again: Katie, who's been assembling a dinner service of octopus ware for several years, and is just about ready for that big dinner party. She's promised me pictures; hope she follows through. Her aunt and parents also came through. Nice to be the family potter.

Pat stopped in and cleaned me out of about half my crow pots. Would've gotten more, but someone else came in first and bought two. It's a competitive market for the collector. Goldie returned to buy another half table service worth of plates and bowls. She discovered us last year, took home two bags of pottery. This year, three.

An unexpected drop-in was Robin, from Eugene. Her brother's late mother-in-law, Mildred, was a delightful retired nurse and self-taught potter I knew from my years at the Craft Center (and actually, before; she used to take in international student boarders, one of whom was my friend in grad school). Mildred used to stop by my booth at Holiday Market to pick up the odd small robin pot, just for Robin. Turns out said brother lives on Lopez Island, and Robin was up for a visit, fortuitously the weekend of the Arts Festival.

Didn't see Arden, our 14-year-old collector. Shelly says she was at Edmonds, and has taken up photography. Should have hired her as an apprentice when I had the chance.

I also missed Bear, a long-time friend and customer. We first met him and partner Lauren back when we were still doing Best of the Northwest in Seattle, and later would see them at Fremont, Edmonds, Anacortes. Never knew if he'd be full-bearded or close-cropped and shaven; sometimes his MS would be acting up and he'd be in a chair, sometimes on foot, always I'd see the bear-paw tattoos on his hands first, look up and say "Bear!" He died unexpectedly last year, so I was glad to see that Lauren came out, so we could share hugs and memories.

Talked to a lot of potters; former potters, mostly. Talked shop, gave out my card, told them about the blog. I also met a promising young potter. His father game in first, talked about the classes they'd been taking together at the local community college and how much promise son Andre was showing as a potter. Later came back with Andre, and we talked a good while about my process and about being a working potter. He promised me pictures of his work too. Watch this space.