So, you froze your credit card in a block of ice to keep from racking up bills while shopping for the holidays?

Well, put down your ice pick.

For the perfect holiday gift – beautiful and easy on the wallet – look no farther than the Trophy Room.

Some 600 pieces of pottery – including plates, platters, bowls, cups, vases and bottles – will go on sale as part of the ceramics annual holiday sale, along with artwork by jewelry, printmaking and photography students.

The sale is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., Dec. 8-11, in the Trophy Room, with prices ranging from $2 to $150.

Most of the pottery for the sale was made at the annual throw-a-thon last month, where advanced students donated their time and threw as many pots as they could while eating and socializing with fellow potters.

All of the money from the pottery goes directly to the ceramics department and is “strictly for extracurricular activities the school can’t afford to fund,” ceramics instructor Karl McDade said.

Such activities include paying professional artists to give workshops to all ceramics students and the department’s yearly trip to UC Davis for a pottery conference where students participate in workshops and competitions.

“It enriches the program and is one of the highlights of the semester,” Tobin Davis, an advanced pottery student, said of the visiting artists.

Instead of ceramics instructors organizing the sale, students in the professional development class are in charge of doing it this year, including publicizing the event and setting up the artwork on the day of the sale.

The class, offered for the first time this semester, is taught by McDade as part of the advanced wheel throwing class.

Students work on the same assignments as the advanced students, but are also required to enter their artwork in a gallery show or exhibition by the end of the semester.

The course focuses on helping students, who are interested in pursuing pottery as a career, make the transition from the classroom to the professional art world, said Dan Klapprott who has been taking ceramics classes at DVC since 2005.

Students are taught how to write an artist’s statement, and the department’s small photography studio is used to photograph their artwork for a portfolio.

Klapprott, who began taking ceramics courses after he retired, said he plans to become a professional potter.

“We’re learning what is takes to put together a sale, advertise and…set up a show,” he said.