Fatherly

[offcntr]

Didn't really have any Definitely Dad's Day appropriate images, so this is what I posted on Instagram for the day. Don't know about the parenting habits of killdeer or rhinoceros, but they could be fathers and children? I guess?

Not sure I did that much Father's Day specific trade, in any event, though a couple of times, couples asked each other "Do you think your dad/grandpa would like...?" Pretty sure at least a bear mug was going paternal.

Actually did much more motherly: a fellow who'd bought his mother a covered casserole earlier in the year came back, said she'd loved it, and dropped $200--cash--buying mugs and bowls for her.

I also got to play Magic Restock Box, twice. First Cara (of the one piece a week couple--Jeremy couldn't come) asked, You wouldn't ever do a dinner plate with a peacock on it, would you? (Opens the box) You mean like this? And sold.

Later had a run on octopodes: two stew mugs, a creamer, and a women asked if I had any on dishes? Once again, into the plates box and happy customer takes it home.

I've got a sort of standard pitch to people who come into the booth, variations on "This is stoneware pottery: I make it on the potters wheel, and paint it all freehand." They usually make appreciative noises and we talk about favorite shapes or animals or whatever. But about one in ten--Protestants, I assume--say "Boy, that's a lot of work." My usual response is I grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin. Nothing will ever be that much work again. Quippy, but not incorrect.

Saturday, two different sets of folks said "Where in Wisconsin?" One family turned out to be from Milwaukee; the other two college-aged women had a family cabin up near Webster, maybe twenty miles from Denise's folk's cabin on King Lake. Wisconsin people--always looking for each other, wherever you go. (Also? If you pronounce it with a "C", you're not from there. It's "Wis-GAHN-sin.")

Took three more special orders, so my July firing is filling up. And I had a woman come in, surprised and delighted to see my work. Apparently, she'd gotten one of my hen soup bowls in a school fundraising auction in Duvall, WA. I vaguely remember being solicited for a donation, at Anacortes or Edmonds. I usually beg off, explaining that I'm not local, and support charities back home in Eugene (eg, Empty Bowls), but I was feeling generous, or maybe tired, so just offered a bowl. She bought it, and now found me, and ended up getting another chicken bowl to go with it.

It's a very small world.