offcntr | After the Bowl Ball (Reply)

Yesterday evening was Food for Lane County's Empty Bowls sale, so the first few people stopping by this morning had all attended. Several told me how many of my bowls they'd collected over the years. One bought a turkey bowl to add to their growing collection. Another, who always made sure to be first in line when the sale started, told of the second person in line who fixated on a praying mantis bowl, that she had to have. Except, when she got to it, someone had sniped it already. She accused first person, who denied stealing her bowl. Later, third person in line confided that she'd bought it, planned on gifting it to second person as a surprise.

Such skullduggery; almost glad I forgot to attend.

After a fairly unpromising morning, the sun finally came out around lunchtime. Fortunately, the customers were not so reticent--a busy Saturday at Market! First up, after the Empty Bowls crowd, was a special order pick-up. Bailey'd ordered a small covered casserole, mama otter pattern. I made two, and both turned out nicely. She picked the one on the left, so I get to put the other one out next week for Mother's Day. She also picked out two dinner plates to go with it, a nice start to the day.

I'm already selling Mother's Day presents--a heron soup bowl for mom and flamingo bowl for grandma. An owl tall mug to a young woman for her mother, who also made me promise to bring in the giraffe mug from the new firing on May 16, when she'd be bringing her mom to Market. Owls and giraffes are her favorites.

Took a bunch of special orders. Bailey wanted a mantis dinner plate to go with her other two. Abdul came back, sad-faced. Did they break it [the new tip jar] again? I asked? No; it's just too small. I promised him a bigger one in my June firing. Speaking of bigger, I took an order for a canister with internal dimensions of 5.5" diameter, 10" deep. And a woman wanted to replace her favorite big bowl, finally broken after 7 years of service. I'll be making her a 6 lb. serving bowl, hummingbird pattern.

Lots of friends buying presents for each other; a young woman announced that she was going to start replacing her dinner plates, one at a time. Her older friend gave her a head start, buying two. Lots of kids in the booth too, taking advantage of my "Please Touch" rule to stroke and pet their favorite animal patterns, and weigh in on what to get mom for Mother's Day.

Ended up being my second-best weekend so far, only about $20 less than opening day. And then the van almost broke down going home. It's been coughing and choking on and off for a few weeks, but generally getting better after a few minutes. This time, it struggled all the way home, had to shift it into neutral at stop signs and rev the motor to keep it from stalling. Guess I'd better get it to my mechanic on Monday.