Goodwill Ambassador
Aug. 20th, 2014 09:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
offcntrBrought to mind by today's discovery, a reminiscence from the Off Center Ceramics website, circa June, 2006.
We had a couple stop by our Saturday Market booth this last weekend, very pleased to find us. Seems they'd picked up one of my bowls at the Goodwill store, and were delighted to find where they could get more.
Ulp. Goodwill?
I've heard stories from other potters, of course, tales of finding their precious creations in yard sales or thrift stores, callously marked down to fractions of a dollar. But this was the first time it had happened to me.
I was immediately beset by doubts. Was something wrong with it? Didn't they like it? Did they think it was really, really ugly but didn't want to offend the friends who'd chosen it just for them? Maybe they were redecorating, and all the roosters had to go. Maybe they were allergic to stoneware, or even--gasp--dead! (I don't have enough customers that I can afford to lose any of them.)
Denise did her best to reassure me. She was certain, she said, that the original owners were moving somewhere far away, the East Coast, maybe, or Australia, and were heartbroken to have to leave their precious bowl behind. (Active imaginations seem to run in our family, have you noticed?) And at least they'd donated it to a good cause.
Ah well, I can get behind donating to a good cause. We're cash-poor, but creativity-rich here, so every year I find myself donating pots to fundraisers for charities ranging from church to schools, Catholic Charities, St. Vincent de Paul, wildlife rehabilitators and chimpanzee sanctuaries. This June, Food For Lane County's Empty Bowls sale included at least 75 soup bowls we donated, as well as serving bowls for their on-line silent auction and fall fundraiser.
So I'm glad Goodwill got a little boost out of my lonely pot. I recently published an article in Ceramics Monthly about those ugly old pots from one's beginning potter days that somehow, against all odds, find someone who treasures them. It's only fair that the reverse is sometimes true as well. But it's a relief to know that somebody found this unloved pot and is giving it a second chance.
We had a couple stop by our Saturday Market booth this last weekend, very pleased to find us. Seems they'd picked up one of my bowls at the Goodwill store, and were delighted to find where they could get more.
Ulp. Goodwill?
I've heard stories from other potters, of course, tales of finding their precious creations in yard sales or thrift stores, callously marked down to fractions of a dollar. But this was the first time it had happened to me.
I was immediately beset by doubts. Was something wrong with it? Didn't they like it? Did they think it was really, really ugly but didn't want to offend the friends who'd chosen it just for them? Maybe they were redecorating, and all the roosters had to go. Maybe they were allergic to stoneware, or even--gasp--dead! (I don't have enough customers that I can afford to lose any of them.)
Denise did her best to reassure me. She was certain, she said, that the original owners were moving somewhere far away, the East Coast, maybe, or Australia, and were heartbroken to have to leave their precious bowl behind. (Active imaginations seem to run in our family, have you noticed?) And at least they'd donated it to a good cause.
Ah well, I can get behind donating to a good cause. We're cash-poor, but creativity-rich here, so every year I find myself donating pots to fundraisers for charities ranging from church to schools, Catholic Charities, St. Vincent de Paul, wildlife rehabilitators and chimpanzee sanctuaries. This June, Food For Lane County's Empty Bowls sale included at least 75 soup bowls we donated, as well as serving bowls for their on-line silent auction and fall fundraiser.
So I'm glad Goodwill got a little boost out of my lonely pot. I recently published an article in Ceramics Monthly about those ugly old pots from one's beginning potter days that somehow, against all odds, find someone who treasures them. It's only fair that the reverse is sometimes true as well. But it's a relief to know that somebody found this unloved pot and is giving it a second chance.