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Thirty something
Mar. 29th, 2023 08:14 pmCross-posted from offcenter.biz.
It was April of 1993. I was still working at the UO Craft Center for part-time wages, but I'd been laid off from my other part-time gig, throwing for Slippery Bank Pottery, just after New Year's. My friend Kathy Lee was looking for a partner to share her booth at Saturday Market. What did I have to lose?
I spent winter term making pots. Bowls, plates, animal-handled mugs. Animal banks, baking dishes, pie plates. Also candle sticks, orange juicers, whistles and ocarinas. Cookies jars and honey pots. Basically, I threw everything, waited to see what would stick.
It was a very low-risk experiment. We each paid $5 plus 10% of sales. Kathy had a pipe-frame booth she'd bought from a retired machinist who was making them in his garage, and I built folding shelves in the Craft Center wood shop. Some days were good, some days were horrible. Some days were horrible, and it rained.
But we endured. Denise and I would come down and set up, then she stayed while I drove out to Lane Community College for my radio show. After our first season, we got a reserved booth, so we could set up early. It wasn't the best space, facing East Lawn. Saturday Market didn't have anything in the way of security back then, so around 3 pm, when the pot dealers moved in, legitimate business went elsewhere. Kathy Lee decided Market wasn't a good place for her quiet pots. I gradually shifted from floral patterns to animal patterns, and sales picked up. We got a better reserved space on the south edge, right in front of Mount St. Market, where the steam vault had exploded the previous year, catapulting the manhole cover into the air.
I started applying to out-of-town shows, first nearby, Bend, Roseburg and Silverton, then farther afield, up into Washington state. (I considered doing California shows, but every time I was ready to commit, another economic bubble crashed: first aerospace, then tech, dot.com, financial markets. I never got closer to the California border than Ashland.) I'm doing fewer road shows these days, down to three currently. Still making as many pots, filling the 50 cubic-foot kiln every couple of months, but selling much better close to home.
I started my website in 2002, experimented briefly with Etsy--a bad experience, like the worst consignment gallery ever--began this blog in 2014. In 2020, my younger potter friends convinced me to start an Instagram, which turned out to be a good way to stay connected through lockdown and beyond.
And this year? Off Center Ceramics turns 30 years old!
Happy Birthday to us.
It was April of 1993. I was still working at the UO Craft Center for part-time wages, but I'd been laid off from my other part-time gig, throwing for Slippery Bank Pottery, just after New Year's. My friend Kathy Lee was looking for a partner to share her booth at Saturday Market. What did I have to lose?
I spent winter term making pots. Bowls, plates, animal-handled mugs. Animal banks, baking dishes, pie plates. Also candle sticks, orange juicers, whistles and ocarinas. Cookies jars and honey pots. Basically, I threw everything, waited to see what would stick.
It was a very low-risk experiment. We each paid $5 plus 10% of sales. Kathy had a pipe-frame booth she'd bought from a retired machinist who was making them in his garage, and I built folding shelves in the Craft Center wood shop. Some days were good, some days were horrible. Some days were horrible, and it rained.
But we endured. Denise and I would come down and set up, then she stayed while I drove out to Lane Community College for my radio show. After our first season, we got a reserved booth, so we could set up early. It wasn't the best space, facing East Lawn. Saturday Market didn't have anything in the way of security back then, so around 3 pm, when the pot dealers moved in, legitimate business went elsewhere. Kathy Lee decided Market wasn't a good place for her quiet pots. I gradually shifted from floral patterns to animal patterns, and sales picked up. We got a better reserved space on the south edge, right in front of Mount St. Market, where the steam vault had exploded the previous year, catapulting the manhole cover into the air.
I started applying to out-of-town shows, first nearby, Bend, Roseburg and Silverton, then farther afield, up into Washington state. (I considered doing California shows, but every time I was ready to commit, another economic bubble crashed: first aerospace, then tech, dot.com, financial markets. I never got closer to the California border than Ashland.) I'm doing fewer road shows these days, down to three currently. Still making as many pots, filling the 50 cubic-foot kiln every couple of months, but selling much better close to home.
I started my website in 2002, experimented briefly with Etsy--a bad experience, like the worst consignment gallery ever--began this blog in 2014. In 2020, my younger potter friends convinced me to start an Instagram, which turned out to be a good way to stay connected through lockdown and beyond.
And this year? Off Center Ceramics turns 30 years old!
Happy Birthday to us.
