Showing posts with label Project Empty Bowls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Project Empty Bowls. Show all posts

Monday, May 2, 2011

Ideas in a bowl





The last couple of years I've been making bowls in spring for Project Empty Bowls, a fundraiser to provide meals to people living with HIV/AIDS in the city.  Although I've never been to the fundraiser, it's a simple concept of soup made by renown chefs served in a hand-made bowl donated by local potters.  Since whoever attends gets to take their bowl home with them, people who come year after year would get the pleasure of filling their bowl cupboard with a wide variety of handmade bowls!
This year I thought I would take the opportunity to create little prototypes or 'sketches' of glaze ideas I've been thinking about with a new bowl shape.  I have a few more in the studio, but these were the ones that I pulled out of the kiln this past weekend.  It's a good way to flush out an idea for me and to find out if my stripes always need to be vertical or have a curved edge.  I chose to stick with subtle colours, but of course, all that could change next time around.
On another note, I have a minimal shop up-date with more on the way. My very big order for a very big shop turned out almost perfect...but not quite (I've linked to a poem by the children's poet Shel Silverstein here- Dean and I have a running commentary about this poem and my own idea of perfection). My pale pink glaze gave me grief so I'm onto round 2 this week as the drop-off and big announcement will happen on Thursday. It will be a big relief when it's all done, I tell ya!

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Project Empty Bowls

Silent Auction season is among us and I've been sifting through my emails to decide which causes I want to support.  Every year I usually pick a handful of fundraisers, hopefully spreading out the time-frame so they aren't all in the same month.  As much as these events can be a 'business' exposure thing, I would way rather think of them as just doing my part the best I know how.  Hopefully whoever goes home with a piece that I've created will be reminded to give and give generously to the needs of others both locally and globally. 

I first heard about Project Empty Bowls back in my art school days when all us ceramic students got together once a year to throw and glaze a bunch of bowls to donate to this fundraiser.  Within the last few years I've once again had the opportunity to be involved.  A Loving Spoonful provides free meals for people living with HIV/AIDS in the Greater Vancouver area.  The fundraiser is an annual event that potters in BC have been involved with since it started. A really simple concept of Soup and a handmade bowl in exchange for a donation was started by a high school art teacher who had his students make bowls for the event. Since then many of the potters I know have generously donated their hand-made bowls year after year.