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<p>KINGSTON &#8212; If the shape of these particular bowls looks, um, puzzling, it&#8217;s because they literally are.</p><p>As about 500 Wyoming Seminary Upper School students and faculty fanned out around the region Friday for an All-School Day of Community Service, 27 of the youngsters stepped into the ceramic art studio in Nesbitt Hall to make Empty Bowls.</p><p>It&#8217;s not just a descriptive name of their creations, it&#8217;s an international project to fight hunger, intended to operate at the grassroots level. Artists and art schools create original bowls that are sold, with the proceeds going toward a hunger-fighting agency.</p><p>In the Sem art studio, students were crafting their bowls in the shape of giant jig-saw puzzle pieces. After rolling out the clay, they placed a piece of a real puzzle on top and carefully trimmed away the excess. The clay puzzle piece was then draped over one of several glass bowls to give it a curve, and held under an electric hair dryer for five minutes to harden it enough for the kiln.</p><p>Most students added a small circle to the bottom to help the bowl stand, though a few took a more meticulous approach, fashioning and attaching legs. One girl inscribed &#8220;curlicues&#8221; onto the outside of her bowl.</p><p>&#8220;Oooh, getting pretty fancy!&#8221; art teacher Colleen Ayers commented as she walked by.</p><p>Laughing while holding a glass bowl upside-down with a puzzle-shaped clay draped over the bottom, Ashley Zhang waved a dryer over the clay. Asked how it was going, she smiled. &#8220;So far, so good!&#8221;</p><p>Ayers expected about 150 bowls by the time all students were done, which takes a bit of time. After the bowls are hardened with the dryer, they are glazed and put into a kiln, with the heat on for about 16 hours and off for another 16 before they are ready to be removed.</p><p>The bowls have to be done by Oct. 15 to participate in a large Empty Bowls event hosted by Wilkes University on Oct. 29, Ayers said. &#8220;Each bowl you sell feeds someone six times,&#8221; she told the students.</p><p>The Wilkes event is the brainchild of local potter and university adjunct Jean Adams, whom Ayers praised profusely for bringing the international project to Luzerne County in 2012.</p><p>&#8220;She&#8217;s done <em>so</em> much work on it,&#8221; Ayers said. &#8220;She has made 1,000 bowls herself.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Sherry Chen and Ashley Zhang dry clay bowls they are making for the Empty Bowls project during the Wyoming Seminary Day of Community Service on Friday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/web1_TTL090917SEM1-2.jpg</photo0><caption0>Sherry Chen and Ashley Zhang dry clay bowls they are making for the Empty Bowls project during the Wyoming Seminary Day of Community Service on Friday. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/web1_TTL090917SEM2-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wyoming Seminary students Bill Zang, Bach Nguyen, Felix Hammond, Logan McGowan and Emily Urbanski make clay bowls during the Wyoming Seminary Day of Community Service. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/web1_TTL090917SEM2-2.jpg</photo1><caption1>Wyoming Seminary students Bill Zang, Bach Nguyen, Felix Hammond, Logan McGowan and Emily Urbanski make clay bowls during the Wyoming Seminary Day of Community Service. </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mark Guydish</p><p>mguydish@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Empty bowls fill a need during Wyoming Seminary Day of Service