Reaching into the kiln, sculpture teacher Cory Bluemling takes out a set of newly fired ceramic bowls. Each bowl is painted in its own set of patterns, colors, and designs for a charity. Some bowls are bright with bold colors, others are soft and more detailed, but all show the hours and effort students have spent on their work.
Bowie’s sculpture classes were recently given the opportunity to participate in making bowls for The Austin Empty Bowl Project, a charity founded by Kit Adams that collects donated charity bowls and donated food that is eaten during the charity event. The leftover food is donated to those in need. Students were allowed to create or design bowls that would be given and used at a charity event held on November 30 at the Central Texas Food Bank.
“I threw the bowls and then students were allowed to either trim them and learn a little bit about the ceramic process or try and throw their own bowls,” Bluemling said. “They could also glaze the bowls that I threw, but a lot of them have been glazing their own bowls. So, those will go into the kiln and will come out in time so we can deliver them for the event.”
During the Austin Empty Bowls event, 30 different restaurants and bakeries donate soups and bread to be eaten the Sunday before Thanksgiving by the families and friends who come to buy the donated bowls. The leftover food is then given to food charities such as the Central Texas Food Bank and Meals on Wheels.
“I’m not able to go to the event this year, but I heard of this charity when I first moved to Austin in 2021, but I’ve participated in the events when I lived in Los Angeles and in Colorado,” Bluemling said. “I thought it’d be fun to give the students an opportunity to participate because it gives them an opportunity to immerse themselves in the craft of sculpture without having to start from zero.”
Making bowls for the Empty Bowl Project was not a required assignment. Bluemling explained it was just a chance for students to learn about the pottery process and to donate for a good cause. However, many students from sculpture classes one, two, and three took part in making and decorating the bowls.
“If they wanted to try and throw a bowl on the wheel and make a bowl from start to finish, they could’ve given that a go,” Bluemling said. “A lot of students are throwing on the wheel for the first time, so I usually made the bowls for them.”
Students spent their class periods for three weeks before turning them in on Friday, Nov. 23 practicing new sculpting or painting techniques while supporting a charity driven event. When the bowls were done in the kiln they were then dropped off at Cafe Monet.
“I haven’t thrown any bowls yet, but I did get to glaze and paint three bowls that I’m really proud of for the charity, all of them with different little designs,” sophomore Celeste Papas said.
Pottery bowls of all different shapes, colors, and sizes are donated to this project from places all over Central Texas. Many different schools, pottery makers, and art studios such as Austin Pottery, Sunset Canyon Pottery, and Cafe Monet all donated a variety of bowls with different designs to the charity.
“We got to paint the bowls with glaze, and then paint whatever different designs and patterns we wanted on them,” sophomore Liliana Manders said. “I wanted to do more gender neutral colors so that everyone could have a bowl and so they’re not just specifically all pink so I did a lot of fish and flowers on mine.”
Bella Prieto, a sculpture one student, explained she used Pinterest to find inspiration for her bowl. She scrolled through and looked at different painting techniques and designs before she finalized her pottery bowls.
“I really like to paint on things and I thought it’d be fun to paint on a bowl that would be given to somebody else,” Prieto said. “I start by looking up inspiration online and I also just like to look around to find painting inspiration, and then I just painted what I wanted to.”
Since the charity’s founding in 1997, The Austin Empty Bowl Project has raised more than $1.4 million from people buying the decorated bowls that are donated at the charity event. This allows them to have even more food to donate to different food charities.
“I hope that when someone sees my bowl they think that it is cute or pretty and that they find a way to connect with it somehow, ” Papas said. “I would love to do it again because I would have time to participate more and come up with new ideas for painting.”
