Most major science fiction conventions have an art show, an area of the convention devoted to the display of artwork by the Artist Guest of Honor as well as other who hope to sell their work. I’m not a fan of art shows. More specifically, I’m not a fan of the illustrations, photographs, and paintings, which tend to be unending variations on cats, unicorns, dragons, and awful puns.
The craft tables, on the other hand, are often full of surprises, physical objects that their makers took a lot of time and effort to create. Steampunk objects have become quite trendy, but how many ray guns and sets of goggles does one really need? I’m always on the lookout for useful things, which is why I was surprised to find this bowl at the most recent Arisia art show:
It had a tag with a price and description:
Udon Bowl for Watching Godzilla Movies
This is the perfect bowl for eating noodles while watching Godzilla movies, or Ringu, or Shutter. It has a handy built-in chopsticks holder sop you never lose your chopsticks!
I liked it, it looked useful, so I placed the first bid on it. A few hours later, I saw that someone else had bid on it, so I placed a final, higher bid, figuring I had won the bowl. Not so, I was informed, the bowl would go up for auction, where the two bidders, along with anyone else, could try to win it. Since thew auction was scheduled when I would be tearing down the Staff Den, I figured I would be outbid.
I saw another bowl, which I purchased immediately (sort of like the “buy it now” feature on eBay):
Pho Bowl for Watching Anime
Now you can eat your favorite pho soup and have a place for your chopsticks and spoon without having to leave the couch!
A few weeks later, I received an email requesting that I pay for and pick up my udon bowl. It went up for auction and received no additional bids, which meat that I had won it by default.
So now I have two well-designed soup bowls. I may not put them to the exact uses specified in the descriptions, but I can tell you that the larger bowl is perfect for homemade ramen:
Both bowls were created by Peri Charlifu of Aegean Goods. You can see more of his work on hisFacebook page, where he also takes orders. I may just order a few more of the larger bowls so I have a matching set for the family.
I am the artist and I am so pleased that you like my work. I just want to correct you on a minor point though, I am not a woman, my Father had a strange sense of humor and spelled my name Peri not Perry. Thanks again for the patronage and look for more work next year!
Thanks for reading. I made the necessary pronoun corrections to the post.