VCPG November 2025 Newsletter
Program Meeting • November 24th • 7pm • Gathering 6:30 •
Gina Lawson Egan • “Looking Back”
For Your Calendar:
November 8th&9th……......Bowl of Thanks & Ventura Pottery Market
November 11th…….............Board Meeting @ 4:30pm
November 24th……............Program Meeting @ 7pm
December 2nd ……............Board Meeting @ 4:30pm
December 8th …..…...........Gallery Committee meeting @ 7pm
December 13th …..….........Annual Holiday Potluck and Clay Challenge Reveal
2pm-4:30pm
You will find the link to all Zoom meetings/events on the VCPG.ORG Home Page.
Just click on the meeting/event in the Guild Calendar for the Zoom link.
A Message from Your VCPG Board President • November 2025
Greetings VCPG Members –
The VCPG renewal period for 2026 is underway. Please renew your membership before December 31, 2025 to avoid a lapse in your membership. Juried members must rejury if their membership lapses.
2025 Bowl of Thanks and Ventura Pottery Market
I have never been so proud to be a member of the Ventura County Potters’ Guild. We do A LOT of amazing things, but this past weekend we all came together with the Ventura-area community to support our neighbors when they really needed us. I know several of us teared up a few times as the weekend progressed – the outpouring of community support was very moving.
We raised over $21,000 for Food Share Ventura County. That will provide over 60,000 meals for our neighbors! This is an increase of over $5,000 from our donation last year.
This is the second year we have partnered with them for the Bowl of Thanks. Attached to this newsletter is a letter of thanks from Food Share. They are hosting a Food for Thought breakfast and tour in February for VCPG members who didn’t attend their previous tour. See the letter for details.
We sold over 850 bowls and other items. We had 78 items remaining at the end. That meant we had over 900 items donated! Not only did our wonderful members donate, but so did local schools and colleges – including Ojai Pottery and Clay School, Nordhoff High School, Ventura and Moorpark Colleges and CSUCI. Thank you everyone!
We will save those 78 items for next year. We are suggesting that we begin making bowls for next year’s event early – maybe one or two each kiln load - and keep them in our studios. That way we can start our tally earlier. We knew folks would come through – we had a wonderful inflow of pots in the last 10 days – but it was a bit of a nail-biter until then.
Each of the nine participating Harbor restaurants prepared 300 tasting samples a day – and it absolutely drew customers to the event. We are very grateful to them – so maybe stop by sometime for a meal or snack and thank them. And we are grateful to the Ventura Harbor Village staff for their assistance – particularly with marketing and logistics. We heard from many of the customers that it was their first time at the Ventura Harbor Village! They experienced all the harbor businesses while collecting the food tastings and visiting the pottery market, fundraiser and the gallery.
Food Share was not the only beneficiary of this wonderful weekend. The twenty-three VCPG artists that participated in the Ventura Pottery Market that weekend sold over $21,800 worth of pottery. That’s an average sale of over $940 per artist, compared to $867 per artist last year. And gallery artists benefited as well. Gallery sales that weekend were $5,049, compared to $1,067 the weekend before. Of the 5 tops sellers in the gallery the weekend of the event, only two participated in the market. Altogether, over $47,800 worth of pottery was sold in two days – to the benefit of many, many people.
And last, but absolutely not least, we thank all the folks that helped organize or came out to lend a hand the day of the event. The Marketing Team, in particular, has been working for months to promote the event. The Events Team handled all the logistics and coordination, and our faithful Cashiers collected all the proceeds! Over 20 Guild members fulfilled their Team Service and/or Gallery Special Event commitments in support of the event. But we also had a lot of members help that had already fulfilled their commitments or were Regular members. Some members (or their family members) showed up for the event and realized we needed help and jumped in even though they hadn’t planned to do so. Talk about above and beyond! And what about the Ventura College students? It seemed like every time one of our members needed assistance, the students were magically there to help!
In closing, I want to thank and congratulate each and every one of you who supported the event. Some of you in multiple ways. I’ve said it before – I am so proud and grateful to be a member of our wonderful community.
PS – I just received a link to an article in the Foothill Dragon Press – the student newspaper of the VUSD Foothill Technological High School. Not only is it great coverage for us, but it’s a really good article. Kudos to them and their instructors.
https://foothilldragonpress.org/289688/a-latest/local-potters-support-food-share-and- community-in-fourth-annual-bowl-of-thanks-event/
A letter of thanks from Food Share
Reminders and Updates
The next Board Meeting will be Tuesday, December 2nd at 4:30pm via Zoom. All members are welcome to attend. The link to Board meetings can be found on the Guild Calendar on the VCPG.org Home page. You can contact the Secretary on the Contact Us page if you would like to receive the Agenda Packet in advance of the Board of Directors Meeting.
And you just received your invitation to the Annual Holiday Potluck and Clay Challenge
Reveal on Saturday, December 13th from 2:00pm to 4:30pm. See you there!
That’s it for now. Let’s stay safe and support one another. And keep making stuff – it helps in so many ways!
Stacy Rowe
Guild President
president@vcpg.org
Program Meeting • November 24th • Program: 7:00pm • Gathering: 6:30
Gina Lawson Egan • “Looking Back”
I have been working in clay for forty years! How can that be? As an artist I have always been productive. Not every ceramic piece is a great success but each one that I make leads me to the next. I am looking forward to sharing images and stories about my journey in clay as well as my process and materials that I use to create sculpture.
Gina Lawson Egan works in the Los Angeles area and lives with her family in Ontario, California. She received her BFA from the University of Michigan, followed by an MFA in Ceramics from the Claremont Graduate University studying Ceramics with the late Paul Soldner. Gina currently teaches Ceramics at California Polytechnic University. Her sculptures are in prestigious collections throughout the United States.
Gina Lawson Egan website
Janet Neuwalder
j.neuwalder@gmail.com
www.janetneuwalder.com
2025 Coming to a Close
Clay Challenge @ December Holiday Party – Saturday, December 13th , 2 - 4:30pm.
Come hang out and celebrate the holidays with fellow Guild members at our end of the year Holiday Potluck and Clay Challenge, Saturday, December 13th, 2-4:30 PM.
It will be held a Rancho Ventura Clubhouse,1220 Johnson Drive, Ventura, CA 93003.
More detail on entering the community will be shared via MemberConnect just prior to the event.
As part of the party we will have space for you to display your “Cover it Up” Clay Challenge piece. This is a great opportunity to introduce your style of work and yourself to other Guild members.
There will also be a pottery gift exchange. Please consider bringing a piece of your work for this exchange. Consider the recipient and select a piece that reflects the best of your work. Please no seconds.
We always need a few extra hands to help with set-up and clean-up for the event. If you would like to help please sign up on the Team Service page of the website or drop Foz and email at foz@fozceramics.com.
This event will be the last opportunity for Plus Tier members to complete their 2025 Team Service commitment.
Please use the attached link to let us know you are coming and what you might bring.
http://whosbringingwhat.com/vcpg/
Team Service = Last Call
If you are a Plus Tier member still needing to complete your Team Service commitment for 2025 follow this link and sign up to help at the Holiday Potluck. This is the last event for the Guild in 2025.
If you would just like to help us with this event, we would appreciate your support too!
https://vcpg.org/content.aspx?page_id=2664&club_id=108313
NCECA Conference, VOLUMES, Detroit, MI-March 25-28, 2026
Look for a Forum on the Guild website, Home, where I will post more on important NCECA dates: conference registration, volunteer opportunities, block hotel room availability, art bus tour sign-ups and more as is released.
Also, I am looking forward to a Guild member meeting up at a gallery or program during the conference. Please feel free to email me at: vcpg.nceca@vcpg.org
Janet Neuwalder
NCECA website
This includes link to Preliminary pdf of 2026 Conference
Utube video of 2026 NCECA
The VCPG Library
Visit the library! Please email and make an appointment with me to come see the books we
have to offer and grab them off the shelf! They are at your disposal. They must be enjoyed.
Nancy Currey
VCPG Librarian
Joke of the month
Why are ducks so bad at pottery?
Everything they make comes out quacked.