Potter's empty bowls help fill food bank shelves
'You can't keep creative hands doing nothing,' says potter who gave 100 handmade bowls to charity
When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the markets where artisans sell their wares in the B.C. southern Interior, it got Bruce Nyeste fired up.
The Shuswap potter turned on his kiln and crafted 100 colourful bowls to benefit the local food bank in Salmon Arm.
Nyeste, who owns Mud, Sweat and Tears Stoneware and Porcelain Pottery in Blind Bay, told Daybreak South host Chris Walker that shelves of his studio in Blind Bay are already full of pottery pieces ready for sale. But there is nowhere to sell them.
"I normally do five summer shows," he said. "At the moment, three of them will be cancelled and I would expect the other two will be cancelled as well. So that's our summer market gone."
A good way to stay sane
So why make more pottery for free? Nyeste said it is a good way to stay sane and keep busy.
"At the moment, my time is worth nothing, so I might as well do something productive," he said. "You can't keep creative hands doing nothing."
Nyeste's bowls for charity were an instant hit. They sold out within two days of delivery to DeMille's Farm Market in Salmon Arm.
"It just went crazy," he said. "We were asking for a minimum $20 donation for each bowl. I believe there were some people that donated quite a lot more than that."
The potter said he enjoyed "playing around" with the shapes and glazes for the bowls, adding ripples to the edges of some and swirls at the centre of others.
The choice of bowls for the donation was symbolic. In the past, Nyeste has participated in an international initiative called "Empty Bowls," in which potters raise funds for local charities to relieve hunger and homelessness in their communities.
Now, Nyeste hopes to make and donate 500 more bowls for the food bank, if the Shuswap Community Foundation can cover the approximately $3-per-bowl cost of materials.
With files from CBC Daybreak North