Winning

Young woman at Holiday Market, Saturday: I'm so glad I found your booth. I'm going to totally win at Family Gift Exchange!

...something that is both normal to want and possible to achieve.

Stewing

Market continues busy; my Saturday Market neighbor Chere and I joke about being "thousandaires" on very good weekends. This weekend, I'm a multi-thousandaire. Lots of familiar faces--Leslie Hildreth, who used to host the Sunday morning Celtic music show on KLCC; Laura Gerards, assistant director at the Craft Center in my days there; and Sheri Reyna, who used to sell goat cheese at Farmer's Market, and is responsible for my dairy goat-patterned pots.

I'm down to two pie dishes, again, sold both of the bunny plates. Fortunately, I have about twenty in this week's firing, so should be good for the rest of the season. On the other hand, I have no cat painted mugs, in the shed or in the kiln. Sold the last three this weekend, and messed up on inventory so didn't glaze more.

An older couple stopped in the booth Sunday afternoon, looking at stew mugs. They were sponsoring adult classes at their church. Last year, they'd provided dinner before the lesson, which was a lot, logistically, so this year they were dialing it back to bread and soup. Can they get a discount if they buy fifteen?

Normally, I'd say yes, I give 10% off on orders of six or more. But in December, in the middle of the Christmas rush? I explain that I really can't. If they'd contacted me in September or October, so I could have factored it into my production cycle, I would have been happy to give them the discount. Right now, when they're leaving me so understocked during the holiday sales, I can't justify it. They said they understood, bought them anyway, decided that the price was still reasonable--just over $400. I made up two grocery bags of mugs and helped carry them out to their car, telling them en route about the time I made 200 custom bowls for a bread-and-soup supper at the St. Vincent de Paul state conference in Eugene.

Lots of candidates for Hair of the Day, mostly subtle rainbow effects, though one woman sported a full electric-blue short 'do. Her partner had to win, though, on sheer sculpture. Her hair was natural black, but swept up in a wave in front, something between Sue Perkins and TinTin.

Favorite story of the weekend: The mom who told me about her four-year-old daughter, who was saving for a hot tub in her frog bank. I think she needs a bigger bank.

But it puts a whole new spin on the "boiling the frog" metaphor.

Glazing recap

Because of the four-stack firing I did Thanksgiving week, I had only a week to glaze everything for my next firing. No leftover pots on the shelves. And by a week, I mean four-and-a-half days; Saturdays and Sundays I'm at Market, Friday afternoon is set-up. It made for some long days.

I powered through it, though. Two bisque-loads of plates, mugs, table ware. Pastas and platters and pie plates. The stuff I made during the last firing took longer to dry than I'd hoped; I finally got it Friday morning, so did all the batter bowls, casseroles and gravy boats before I had to go to the Fairgrounds at 3 pm. Sitting down in the booth Saturday morning was, by comparison, relaxing.

A small sampling of the work:

Tall mugs,

Pie plates,

Baking dishes and pasta bowls,

and some very cool Platters.

Precision kiln loading

Two weeks since my last firing. Everything is already in the kiln room, including my personal kiln shelves--I have nineteen--that I didn't bother putting away after last time. No clue how much work I have, though a back-of-the-envelope calculation says I definitely need a six-shelf stack.

I go through the usual three stages of loading: 1. Oh no, there's not enough stuff! 2. Oh no, there's too much stuff! and 3. Huh. That's not too bad.

As it happens, there was just enough stuff. I could have fit, maybe, another mug and a few cat food dishes, if I'd had them. And had four pots left over, a pie plate and three small/medium serving bowls.