Hearst Center helps with upcoming Empty Bowl fundraiser

Feb. 21, the Hearst Center created empty bowls for the Empty Bowl fundraiser happening on March 27. The event is hosted by the Northeast Iowa Food Bank. There were Hearst Center instructors to help people if they encountered any trouble.

Amythest Warrington, ceramic manager at the Hearst Center, said, “Empty Bowls is an international event to combat food insecurity. A wide range of individuals and organizations donate bowls to the event. The fundraising event is set up as a ticketed event. You pay an entry or ticket fee that gets you a meal and a bowl to take home. Many events now also have raffles or auction items, in addition to the bowls you get to pick from to take home. I believe the event started in the ’90s. Many of the bowls are created from clay, but they are not required to be created from any particular material. I have seen some beautiful wooden and metal bowls donated in the past.”

Warrington said she believes “It has been happening for at least 10 years. I started working here a little over a year ago and have been a participant creating bowls before. It is an established activity at the Hearst.”

Noticing that people felt the need to make multiple bowls in an afternoon, Warrington said, “I changed it to one bowl for a two-hour period, emphasizing quality over quantity. In the past, people would make multiple bowls in a two-hour period.”

Warrington said, “I haven’t been to the fundraising event for this area, so my story is from a number of years ago in Cedar Rapids. They did a variation with the cereal company down in Cedar Rapids, so it was called Cereal Saturday instead of Empty Bowls, but it was the same event. They ate cereal instead of soup. Because it was hosted by the cereal company, they had a number of characters in costume. They were short a person for Lucky the Leprecon so I stepped in as an employee helping at the event. For two hours I was the official Lucky. It was pretty fun.”

There are recurring volunteers every year. Warrington said, ”Yes, we have families who come every year to create bowls for the fundraiser. Some even come to multiple making events that we put on throughout the year.”

Regarding the process of making the bowls, Warrington said, “Making and decorating takes two hours per bowl, but I have to fire it two times once it is dry. Typically, the process is two to four weeks. Since we don’t charge for making the bowls, they get worked in with other firings when we have extra space in the kiln instead of a standalone firing like paid events get.”

The steps to make the bowls, Warrington said, include the following:

1. “Make and glaze the bowls. We use Stroke-n-Coat glazes that can be put on wet clay before the first, bisque firing, so participants can glaze their own creation.
2. Let the bowls dry. 
3. Fire the bowls twice. First time at a lower temperature to drive off all the water. Second, at a higher temperature to glaze fire it. Sometimes I have to add more glaze to the objects before glaze firing if the participants didn’t add enough while making.  
4. Store until the fundraiser event that is put on by the Food Bank.
5. Attend the event.”

Warrington said, “Each making event is capped at 25 makers at a time. I have one to two a month from September through February.”

Warrington said, “places, organizations and individuals all donate bowls to the event. We are just one place that donates them to the food bank.”

Warrington said, “The Hearst pays for all supplies and employee hours for the bowls we create and donate. When I was in undergrad at UNI, the ceramic faculty (JoAnn) donated all the supplies and fed pizza to all those willing to donate time to create bowls for the event once a year. Other ceramic studios and schools do something similar.”