Swan Valley Potter Bob Korn started teaching himself pottery when he was 40, 38 years ago. "I've reinvented the wheel I don't know how many times but I like it," said Korn. "It is relaxing and fun." His favorite part about pottery - emptying the kiln, "It's like Christmas morning every time you do it." He and his wife started the Soup Bowl Fundraiser at the Loon & Fish Festival in 2000. This year, Korn came of out of retirement to make bowls.
The Seeley Lake Bunko Group Kelli Wold, Gail Kantorowicz and Kathy Thompson with potter Carrie Darrah. They were one of several groups that helped decorate the bowls that Darrah made for the Soup Bowl Fundraiser. They all agreed it was a lot of fun and they were happy to help out.
These are just a few of the decorated ceramic bowls made by Obsession Pottery that will be available Saturday starting at 11:30 a.m. for $20. The bowls will be filled with soup. After enjoying the soup and roll the bowl can be taken home. All proceeds benefit the Seeley-Swan Community Food Bank.
SEELEY LAKE - Over the 19 years of the Loon and Fish Festival, Bob Korn of Swan Valley's Kornutopia created and donated at least 100 bowls annually for the Food Bank Soup Bowl fundraiser. This raised more than $30,000 since its inception for the Seeley-Swan Community Food Bank.
After a six-year hiatus, Korn teamed up with Seeley Lake potter Carrie Darrah's Obsession Pottery for the fundraiser. Each donated more than 50 decorated ceramic bowls that will be sold Saturday, May 25 starting at 11:30 a.m. during the Loon and Fish Festival at the Seeley Lake Community Hall. The cost of a handmade bowl with choice of more than 10 soups donated by local restaurants is $20. When the handmade bowls run out, soup is $10/bowl.
The first Loon and Fish Festival was held in 1993. However, it wasn't until 2000 that Korn and his wife Ruth introduced the first "Soup Bowl Benefit."
Korn said the idea came from the international 'Empty Bowl Project' that was started in the early 1990s by a pottery guild. It is a grassroots effort by artists and crafts people in cities and towns across the country to feed the hungry in their communities. It supports food-related charitable organizations around the world, and has raised millions of dollars to help end hunger.
Korn decided it would be a nice project for the Seeley-Swan Valley to support the local Food Bank. Korn donated his time and material to make 100 bowls. Alpine Artisan members decorated the bowls. Local businesses donated the soup.
"I don't have money to give to charities but I like to work on charities. I can do this," said Korn.
Before the Loon and Fish ended in 2013, and the Soup Bowl Benefit with it, Korn said a member of the Food Bank told him that the Soup Bowls raised one third of their income for the year. With the rekindling of the celebration of art and nature, Korn was asked to come out of retirement and make bowls again this year for Saturday's lunch. Even though it had been two years since he had been in his pottery studio, he agreed.
"It's a project for me and I've really been enjoying myself," said Korn who added it was the reason he needed to get back into his studio.
Korn donated everything but the clay for this year's fundraiser. He is making a new design for the bowls that are 6.5 inches and nearly two inches deep and he can throw in about three minutes each. He along with a few volunteers decorated the bowls.
Korn was excited to have Darrah involved this year and hope she continues to support the fundraiser in the future. Like Korn, Darrah knew about the "Empty Bowls Project." She participated with other potters for an Empty Bowls fundraiser in Helena.
"I was really excited to see it done in Seeley Lake," said Darrah. "It's a good cause and we had a lot of fun."
Darrah donated all of the time and materials making over 50 bowls. She invited several groups of volunteers from the community to help her decorate including volunteers from the Seeley-Swan Community Food Bank, Seeley Lake Bunko group, Darrah's glaze class, Darrah's family and other groups of friends. Volunteers could do an under glaze with a clear, blue or green glaze or decorate with different glaze colors. The volunteers also got to decorate a small dish to take home as a keepsake.
"I like unique," said Darrah who could have decorated all the bowls but they would have all been the same. "It's nice to see all the different things."
"I want people to have a meal – that is why I do things like this," said Korn. "I feel sorry for people that are traveling broke, can't afford gas or get hung up here, they need food. This will buy a lot of meals. "
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