We had a huge success on Friday, April 25, 2025 – and also had lots of fun at the same time! Our annual Empty Bowls event featured hundreds of beautiful handmade bowls, 23 different homemade soups, and quite a number of delicious baked goods – all made by our own generous and talented members. It was also planned, organized, and staffed by wonderful CAC volunteers, of course. And the bottom line is that we made over $9,000, all of which we’re donating to the Food Bank of the Contra Costa & Solano Counties! 

Below is a photo of some of the movers and shakers that made this happen (but not all of them, unfortunately). Shown in the top photo are, left to right: Pamela Liang, Theresa Kuo, Dawn Manley, Linda Mariano, Patty Taylor, Wendy Markel. [NOTE: The one with the long dark hair is Dawn Manley, from the Food Bank - and they are all standing behind the table she had at the event, to publicize their organization.]

And below that photo are some pictures of the Empty Bowls event taken by CAC President Wendy Markel. A good time was had by all who attended!

Our Empty Bowls Fundraiser on April 21st was an amazing event. We sold about 240 bowls, and in the process gave away all of the soup and other goodies. Everything was made by CAC’s own dedicated volunteers, of course. Kudos and many thanks to all of them – it was a wonderful community effort! 

Our treasurer Amy has just revealed that the final sales total (drum beat) is $6804.73 (gasp!!). This will all be donated to the Contra Costa Food Bank, of course, And although we worked hard, we had a lot of fun in the process – as did our many supporters in Rossmoor (and guests from outside as well). ​Below are some of the beautiful bowls that were created for this event:

On April 18 we had our third annual Empty Bowls fundraiser, with over 200 hand-crafted ceramic bowls on sale, to be filled with any of 20 kinds of delicious (& free) soup, all made by our multi-talented members. The exact total we raised for the local Food Bank is $1184 (we raised $670 in 2016 and $900 in 2017). And although it was a lot of work, it was also a lot of fun!

Below is a photo of some of us that was taken by Mike DiCarlo of the Rossmoor News just before the sale opened. It shows only a fraction of the CAC members who contributed to the sale. By the way, there was a also second table full of bowls - they didn't all fit onto just one table! And of course a third table held 20 steaming pots of soup. No one went away hungry, there was something for everyone!

It's been a busy winter & spring! We've recently had another Orientation Class and welcomed 14 new members. Several local clay artists from outside of Rossmoor have demonstrated interesting techniques at our club meetings. There have been two Beginning Wheel classes of 4 sessions each (today is the last day).

In addition, many of our members have made beautiful bowls to donate for the upcoming Empty Bowls fundraiser coming next month (April 18). Also lots of pottery and a number of beautiful and/or quirky sculptures have been created in our studio. Last but not least, some of our folks have brought their pieces to share at our monthly Show & Tell sessions. See below for just a taste of it!

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!

Lots going on.. most recently, the first ever Rossmoor Earth Day celebration last Friday afternoon (April 15). We collected about 85 bowls of all different sizes and shapes, all of them made in our studio by our members, and sold them at prices ranging from $3 to $15. We had 10 different homemade soups (also from CAC members) and let the buyers of the bowls fill them with whatever type they wanted. There was even a batch of matzoh balls, as well as crackers, to go into the soup. People loved it! We sold all but 2 of the bowls and used up almost all of the soup. (People asked for the recipes, so I'm going to post them here -the first one that was sent to me is below, along with photos of the event.) This whole process is an Empty Bowls Project, and by the end we had raised $670 for the Contra Costa Food Bank.

Oh yes - we also had a demonstration of pugging, which is how we recycle clay in the studio. Folks were very interested in that, and lots of clay was processed in the course of the afternoon. Pictures of that are below, too.

Earlier this month we had a new display of CAC members' artwork installed in the Rossmoor Event Center (see the middle row of photos above - also the card showing the artists' names and titles of the work). And we had a lovely demo by Oakland potter Lynne Meade. Last but not least - our people have been very creative! (But that's not unusual.)