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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 13, 1976)
Saturday Market craftspersons face post-holiday inertia problem By NICK GALLO Of the Emerald Portrait of the Saturday Marke artist as a bank teller? A tree planter? Hawaii tourist with a can era and lei and one of those crazy floral print shirts? Christmas is more than the usual swirl of turbulence for mar ket craftspersons. Some start jamming for that wild, frenzied finale as far back as August. But when it's all over, when the post holiday catatonia sets in, what’s a craftsperson to do? "Probably starve,'' laughed Den nis Werst, a silversmith who ar rived recently in Eugene and is working the fairs "If I do all right, I d like to get into more creative forms of working with a combina tion of wood and gems '' But craftspersons are unlikely to starve The market has come a long way since the days when structures were illegal and there was one sole jeweler with a hand ful of rings in an egg carton. The crafts mania could be peaking this year In a town where potters may outnumber loggers, the glut of fairs serve to feed private fantasy (. let's see now, when I get rich I'm going to . .) ' Everybody expects to get rich during Christmas season," exp lains Jack Pickett, a leather worker, "but they never do." Pickett, a three-year veteran of the market, wonders what it would take to pack the market’s craftspersons on a train, some thing like the Freedom Train which passed through the area this year, and point it toward those glorious untapped markets in the East where everyone, of course, is filthy rich "But I'll probably end up tnm mmg trees in the ram." Pickett adds, his eyes still twinkling. And then there's the two quilt makers who will plant trees this winter and the guy who makes ceramic drums who will probably bus dishes. The woman in the black leotard top and silver scarf has a plane ticket to Hawaii "I know guys who bag sacks of gram all winter long," says Michael Murphy, who has aban doned the market to do the week Iona fairs throuahout the North west. "I had someone making jewelry with me who was a bank teller." “There's a lot ol Saturday artists here," says Murphy, "which is line,' he is quick to add "But a true craftsman is a person who makes his living by his craft.” sed fine selection i at one half the anginal Ce lop paces paid fo> your Qualitat^Used Books Pleai and Used IOIW.7>+2-Z002 y. . . tmwilD pnoio i nese musicians are among the many craftspersons from the Saturday Market who look for alternative means of surviving. Some bag sacks of grain, some return to art for art's sake - and some starve. And then there's always those who would like to crawl inside a dnftboat and wait tor steelhead all winter long But for Ken Warner, one of the market's "Horatio Al gers” this year, it's back to the drawing board Warner had been married to an hourly job at a Roseburg plywood mill when he and his wife, who quit her recep tionist job, decided to make back packs. The two are storming the area, but Warner wants to take some time off to design some special equipment like the request for a pack that would fit a St Ber nard. There are those, too, who will abandon crafts for a few months to go back to their first love: art for art's sake Michael Caffrey wants to paint. "I don’t care to paint to sell," he says. “I'd rather do functional crafts here and then paint for myseff. But I've been saying that for two years now ” Murphy concurs when he says. "Jewelry puts four squares on the table and buys shoes for my kids. I enjoy it. I don’t love jewelry, but I enjoy it." And last but not least is the pot ter who had company for dimer last week and ran short of dishes. That's right, she’ll be making dishes in the afterglow of the holi days. HAII14 I l>_ 561 E. 13th Ave. — Across from Max’s — 344-1714 NATURAL HAIR DESIGNS FOR WOMEN & MEN! $10.00 includes shampoo, moisturizing conditioner, hair cut designed for you, and air-waved — a completed easy care style $7.50 a wet cut designed for you and your hair for easy care, and air-waved — a completed style to go anywhere. $5.00 a dry cut for those who prefer dry cuts — designed for your hair and you. Remember: we carry the finest of professional hair care products for you to use Look for our DUCK DOPE coupon O REDKEN H£H SKIERS s-n-o-w i (fit Last) Do your Christmas Ski shop ping at Berg’s. Both stores will be open until 9:00 p.m. from now through Christmas. Come in and talk to our professional staff. CROSS COUniRM SKI PflCKflGfS STflRTinG AT J99.95 at our 11th & mill Store 13th l Lawrence - Two Locations - 11th & Milt Phone 343-0014 Phone 343-0013 | Meet photographer Gene Anthony ^ I here to autograph “The Illustrated Eternal Sea” Wednesday, Dec. 15, 12 to 2 pm 2nd floor of the Bookstore The illustrated Eternal Sea is a collection of prose and poetry by Joseph Conrad, Ernest Hemingway, Thor Heyerdahl, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman and more of the world's greatest writers — capturing the beauty and mystery of the sea, complemented with 125 sensitive photographs by Gene Anthony. This and many other great gift books are available in the tradebook section of the bookstore. Come in and browse — you might find the perfect gift for that special person this Christmas UofO Bookstore 13th at Kincaid 686-4331
