Arduinna

Another sportsball weekend, this time the annual Civil War match-up between the University of Oregon Ducks and the Oregon State Beavers. I didn't have any beaver plates in stock, so had to make do with a platypus.

The game started at noon, so I think a lot of vendors figured it wasn't worth coming out to Market. Lots of empty spaces, and quite a few folks who usually get a 4x4-foot space found themselves expanding into a full eight-foot square.

Including my neighbor for the day, a jeweler named Be, selling necklaces and bracelets with crystals and semi-precious stones. A bit of a tough sell, her price point was above the average for this Market, and pitching the healing power of various crystals didn't seem to help. She said she estimated her prices based on time and cost of materials, then checked against what ChatGTP thought she should charge, and how does that even work?

I'm sure it didn't help that her neighbors were selling appreciably better than she was. Jim the glass artist was having a particularly good day, I was above average for me, which is close to unattainable to a lot of vendors. Even Jesse started out the morning with an early sale of two bug-and-butterfly shadow boxes, and sold steadily the rest of the day.

Saw a lot of folks in Oregon green and yellow early on, but only one old duffer in an OSU hat. None actually buying anything, of course; they can come to Saturday Market any time, and at this point in the year, they're mostly asking if we'll be at Holiday Market. Still, I needed to be there for a couple of orders to pick up. (Only one of whom actually did, but she bought two cat stew mugs, so there'd be a spare if her mom broke one again.)

Had a bunch of repeat customers, though, one picking up a pair of plates to fill out her set, another young couple continuing to add to their collection. Best sale of the day went to a woman buying a wedding present, who couldn't decide between a barn owl serving bowl and barn owl platter. So she bought both.

Had a mother and daughter come in with sad news: the pie plate daughter had bought for mother's day split on first use. Not in the oven, actually, cold on the edge of the sink as mom was scooping out the remains of the pie. I offered to replace it, of course--I stand by my work--either a different pattern from current stock or the same pattern from my next firing. Mom asked if she could replace it with something else of similar value, which I of course agreed to. She picked out a stick butter dish which was a direct price match and went home satisfied. I'll probably glue the plate back together--it's quite a nice otter and baby pattern--and hang it on the wall of shame in my studio.

Saw a couple of crow-themed t-shirts: Jesse, my neighbor, had one that said Crows, not Bros: Support your local Murder. And someone walking by had a crow-patterned shirt that read F-(caw)f! (Say it out loud...) So it's probably appropriate that I took a special order for two raven bowls, a soup and a toddler.

Never was super busy, but never got slow enough to pull my Kindle out of the bag. The last end-of-day dinner plate sale brought me over $800, a worthwhile outing.