Last Wednesday (April 26) the Ceramic Arts Studio was alive with joyous sights and sounds as it hosted Brownie Troop # 32662 from Danville - all third graders.They were accompanied by their leaders. The girls were inquisitive, excited and curious, filling the room with chatter.  After a tour of the studio facilities, they settled in to work on making clay tiles.  They were intensely engaged in the process, each one decorating her tile using stamps, textures and flora and whatever else sparked her imagination.  Afterwards the leftover clay was quickly turned into vases, cubes, a beard, rings, faces and other expressions of their joyous creativity. Finally they picked out the colors they wanted their tiles to be glazed.  Volunteers from the Ceramic Arts Club will fire and glaze them, and the tiles will be returned to the Brownies at a later date.
            This experience at the Ceramic Arts Studio will help the Brownies to earn a merit badge. It was a fun time enjoyed by the entire troop and the CAC club members as well.

The Pit Fire is looming - May 10 is the date. Then we'll unload two days later, on May 12, and have a potluck lunch afterwards, to celebrate. We had our second & final class on Pit Fire preparations with Jane Burton last Thursday (see below). Now the (post-bisque) Pit Fire materials are set out on one of the tables in the main room of our studio, for all CAC members to use. Gotta get everything ready!

The Ceramic Arts Club's "Empty Bowls" fundraiser, which happened in conjunction with the Rossmoor Earth Day celebration on April 21, was a great success. It was our second time to do this (see the "Scoop" post from April 17, 2016 to read about the first one). For this event over 115 hand-crafted bowls and ten kinds of homemade soup, as well as a batch of matzoh balls,  were created by the club's members. The price of the bowls ranged from $3 to $20.  Everyone who purchased a bowl could to fill it with soup (with or without a matzoh ball!), for free.

The $900 which was raised during this process is being donated to the Contra Costa Food Bank (last year we raised $670). And everyone involved, club members as well as the general public, had fun. It was a win-win situation!

Also shown above (the last two photos) are: the "Sustainable Rossmoor" potted plant sale  featuring some marvelous ceramic pots created by CAC members, and the latest display of CAC members' works at the Rossmoor Event Center - stop by to check it out when you can!