A familiar face

 When Denise first bought me my Kindle, she paid extra for the ad-free version. After trying mine for a few months, we sprang for another for her, but it has ads. Generally, they're pretty random, a mix of romance--because the account is in a female-presenting name--and best-sellers. Lately, though, they've been cycling through this series.

Yup, it's that cyberpunk-with-angels series by our good friend lydamorehouse. So far, we've seen all four of the original series, though not the upcoming re-release of the fifth book, Resurrection Code.

It's great to see her publisher is giving her support, although we already have the entire series in original paperback. Less great is that the cat trod across the screen and managed to purchase the Audible version of the first book; getting them to return it was a challenge.

Studiosity

I'm back in the studio again, getting a head start on pots for my end-of-October firing. I'm pretty much caught up on graphics for Clay Fest and Clayfolk, just have the CF map to do, and soon I'll need to be sorting and stickering pots, loading up the van. So I figure, busy is coming, lets get in some throwing time while it's still relatively quiet.

Started with two bags--50 lbs.--of mugs for Great Harvest Bakery. Figured they hadn't reordered in a while, so it couldn't hurt. As it happened, when I stopped in for bread on Thursday, Gordo told me they were completely out, he'd be happy to take all 40 mugs when they come out of the fire.

Went from there to stew mugs, 32 of them; even after my last firing, I'm running low again. For some reason, they're suddenly more popular than soup bowls, which makes no sense to me. The bowls hold more, and stack neatly in the cupboard. But what do I know, after all? I'm just the potter.

Also made a batch of batter bowls, as they're also flying off the shelves. Always liked this shape, and the handles--not yet attached in these pics--are so cool.

Next, I went for silly. I'm running low on dinosaur banks and salt and pepper shakers. The shakers are pretty quick, since most of the detail is painted on with the glaze. The banks... not so much. I made 25 lbs.--a dozen--each of brontosaurs and stegosaurs. Actually, that only counts the bodies. With heads, legs, and all those spines, it's easily another bag of clay, so 75 lbs. total. I made the parts on a Thursday, let things get leather hard--or cheese-hard, as rachelmanija recently discovered--overnight, then spent a very long Friday assembling all the bits.

Lastly, I took some time to make some weird special orders, definite one-offs. One of these pots is for weighing coffee beans before they go in the grinder. The other is a grease tray for a cast-iron bacon press. Can you guess which is which?

Jumping in

Okay, after last week, there was no denying that Fall had arrived; figured I may as well jump in (hence today's theme photo). So I brought my flannel shirt, denim jacket, wool hat. Wore long pants and three pairs of stockings (compression, cotton tube and wool). Wound up ditching the coat while unloading the van, but the flannel stayed on until after lunch, and I didn't shed the wool socks until nearly take-down.

As I backed in to my space to unload, I spotted something pink in the shrubbery behind my space. Closer examination revealed what looked like a pill bottle, complete with prescription-style label. Turns out it was from a drugstore, just not that kind. Yeah, it was from a marijuana dispensary, variety "Soursop," and there was still about an inch-and-a-half stick inside. Further examination turned up two empty airline bottles from Fireball, an empty cigarette pack and a three-color paint stick, presumably used for graffiti. I kept the paint stick, turned the rest over to the Info Booth for disposal.

A lot of the Market regulars, including many of the potters, were gone for the day, presumably up to Corvallis for Fall Festival. It's a very good show, I've done well there in the past, but I just can't sustain it anymore. Between Anacortes in August and Clay Fest in October, I just can't make enough work to do a September show. Heck, Market keeps me plenty busy without having to leave town.

UO students were back in force, many accompanied by parents, and no few parents had installed their kids in the dorms and came down to Market solo. My first two customers were from Anchorage, Alaska and Ashland, Oregon; I gave the latter a Clayfolk bookmark lurking in the bottom of my show bag. Had a couple of parents comment that their kid had bought them something from me, and one pair of folks wound up buying over $100 of work for themselves. Lots of students also were looking for a mug or bowl to take into the dorm with them, and two or three bought watercolor cards with the intent to hang them as art on their walls.

Had two different young women ask about my process; I always enjoy talking shop. One asked if I was using underglaze pencils; I've tried them, didn't like them. Decorating bisque felt like drawing on the sidewalk with a rock. Give me a brush and a fluid medium any day! The second one said she actually came from a family of potters. I told them both about the EMU Craft Center; turns out they'd both discovered it already.

Got a nice visit from Erin, another college student. For several years, she and her housemate Nathan would stop regularly to look at the work and talk about pots. (They even took one of my workshops at the Craft Center last spring.) Nathan has graduated and moved to California, but Erin has another year to go. She came in with family, introduced me to her Dad and her aunt and uncle Dean. Who i recognized, after a double-take, as Dean Lamoureaux, one the wood shop supervisors at the Craft Center back when I was a resident potter. Cue up It's a small world, after all...

Despite an early start, and lots of traffic, sales were pretty slow until about two o'clock, when everybody who'd been looking in the morning came back at once--five sales in quick succession. Throw in the parents I already mentioned above and we made over $800 for the day.