Get bowled over for a good cause

Up until Tuesday, the most experience I'd had with clay was two oddly shaped, barely discernable fish about which my family still teases me. Now I have two unmistakable bowls, complete with patterns and stamps on my potters resume.

I went to the first bowl-making marathon at Jars of Clay in the Garden Gallery on Tuesday. The casual event was meant to fill the shelves with bowls for the third annual Empty Bowls Project, a national not-for-profit that raises money for food banks and soup kitchens.

The Empty Bowls Project serves a yearly dinner of soup and bread. This year's dinner is set for Nov. 9. The yearly meals wouldn't make the cover of a magazine, but that's the point. They're supposed to show people that not everyone gets to eat steak. With the ticket everyone gets to pick out and take home a handmade bowl — that's where the clay comes in.

This year organizers hope to get 500 bowls made for the November dinner, and they need help.

I went to just hang out and talk to the people making bowls, but when I got there at shortly after 2 p.m., I was handed a slab of cold, gray clay, a mold and a bowl of stencils.

The ladies sweetly ignored the panicked look on my face, and with a little instruction and encouragement I was stamping and molding with the greatest of ease.

By the time I left, my fingernails were dirty, my hands were dry and I found clay in my hair. I have no idea how that one happened. I'm messy anyway, but assign me an activity where the point is to get your hands dirty and I get a tad excited.

I only got through two bowls in the hour that I was there. I wanted to stay so I could crank out more dishes and compete with the guy on the wheel who put up six bowls in roughly 10 minutes, but alas, SE Live awaited.

All of the pottery wheels were full with a class from Southeast, but they told me the room is usually pretty empty. Working continuously on pottery you can finish a bowl in about two weeks. You make it, dry it, bake it, glaze it and bake it again. I omitted wait time, but it's a long process.

The regulars welcome guests and are excellent teachers. They even lie to you and say the bowl looks good to boost your ego and keep you there. They did for me.

The Garden Gallery and Jars of Clay is open noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, but they may be enticed to stay open later if potters can't tear themselves away from that mesmerizing wheel. You can call ahead at 332-7123 to make sure someone is there to help.

It's fun. It's free. And it's air-conditioned, so take a hot afternoon and churn out some bowls for a good cause.