The last week or so has been packed with potting events. In this blog I'll talk a little bit about Empty Bowl Hawaii which took place on April 26. It was organized by the Hawaii Potters Guild, and every local pottery school that I know of participated. The goal was to make 5,000 bowls, sell them for $25 along with soup, and donate the money to Meals On Wheels here in Hawaii. We reached the goal of 5,000, and I made quite a few bowls myself. HPG was gracious enough to allow those of us at the Guild to use recycled clay to make our bowls. This year Empty Bowl was held in the parking lot at Ala Moana Shopping Center in downtown Honolulu, one of the world's largest outdoor malls. There was a great turn out and we sold quite a few bowls but nowhere close to 5,000. The figure I heard was somewhere north of 3,000. Still, that's alot of bowls and that's alot of money for Meals On Wheels. I did see one thing happen over and over again that night that made me shake my head and chuckle. I had to laugh when I saw so many people agonizing over picking out their bowls. They would pick out bowls they liked, but they'd keep looking, carrying around their bowls and swapping them for other bowls they thought they liked better. Some were having fun with it and enjoying the hunt, but others would get this look of panic on their faces because there were thousands of bowls they hadn't seen yet and they couldn't stop looking because they didn't know if an even better bowl might be on the next table. To make matters worse, the volunteers kept putting new bowls on tables they'd already looked at so they were starting to go crazy. I think it must have been a nightmare for anyone who's indecisive! Mahalo nui loa to all who made bowls, who volunteered to work at Ala Moana, and to all the fine restaurants who donated soup.