A bowl of hot soup at the Lawrence Arts Center’s sixth annual Souper Bowl Saturday sale will warm more than chilly bones.

Each bowl of soup purchased will put the center’s ceramics studio one step closer to a gas kiln to fire the pots and sculptures created in the studio.

The kiln, which would measure about 5-feet square, would give students another outlet for their creativity, said Scott Garrette, ceramics studio manager. A gas kiln will allow the artists to fire their works at higher temperatures than electric kilns.

“It increases the strength of the clay when you go to a higher temperature. The pieces that people can make are, I believe, more functional,” he said.

The gas kiln would bring social benefits, too, Garrette said.

“It’s kind of a more community interacting kind of piece of equipment. For one, there’s fire. A lot of people are amazed by fire, and so it creates sort of an atmosphere. It’s more powerful then just turning up a switch from low to medium to high,” he said.

Proceeds from the Souper Bowl sale, held each year the Saturday before the Super Bowl, have always benefited the ceramics department, which includes more than 120 students, Garrette said. Since the Arts Center moved to its new location last spring, the studio has more students, more room to expand and more expenses.

This year’s sale will be from 11 a.m. until the food or the bowls run out at the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 N.H.

Here’s how it works: You pick out a bowl from the 400 to 600 that ceramics students and area artists have created and donated for the sale. For $10, you get your bowl filled with soup donated by Hy-Vee, bread donated by Great Harvest Bread Co., and drinks provided by the Arts Center. After finishing the soup, you keep the bowl.

“It’s kind of nice as a gift idea,” Garrette said of the bowls. “And it helps in two ways: It’s a donation, sort of a gift to the Arts Center, and then you also have something to give to friends.”

Past sales have raised between $3,000 and $4,000 before expenses, Garrette said. This year, organizers would like to double that. They’re having a pledge drive in conjunction with the sale to boost their profits.

Ceramics instructors and students will go door to door, call businesses and solicit friends to make a per-bowl-sold pledge.

They expect the kiln, which they’ll build themselves, to cost about $8,000. It will be constructed on a terrace off the back of the studio. Over time, they hope to add several other kilns to the outdoor space.

“It’s going to be a nice addition,” Garrette said.