Eight-year-old Emma Fernald stayed up Saturday night with her baby-sitter Kelly to finish her special art project.

The project: A bunny, made from rocks and periwinkles, with two huge mussel shell ears. The reason: It was up for sale the next day at Islesford’s “Bunnies, Rabbits and Hares at the What’s Up Dock?” auction, an extravaganza of nearly 100 rabbits (and a lot of puns) made of clay, rubber, stone, cloth, shells and other materials by island residents of all ages to raise money for a much-needed new fire truck.

Islesford, the village on Little Cranberry Island, relies on two tanker trucks, neither of which supplies enough water to deal with a major emergency. The Islesford Fire Department is raising around $150,000 to purchase a Water Master vacuum tanker, enabling firefighters to pump water directly from the ocean.

“[The new one is] a tanker truck that has a vacuum that sucks the water out of the ocean and goes a lot faster,” said “What’s Up Dock?” organizer Marian Baker, an artist and summer resident who operates Island Pottery on the Islesford Dock Restaurant pier. “It’ll help more people on the island get fire insurance. It costs around $150,000, and we have to earn a certain amount, and a bank loan and grant will pay the rest.”

The fundraiser was held on the dock shared by Baker, the Islesford Dock Restaurant, and the Winter’s Work gift shop, on a clear, windy Sunday.

“We did something like this a few years ago with owls, and before that with mermaids,” said Baker, stopping for a moment amid the bustle of the auction, which packed the dock and drew residents from around the Cranberry Isles and visitors from the mainland.

“My co-potter Kaitlyn and I were trying to think of a theme,” she said. “We almost went with lobsters, but Kaitlyn said that if we chose rabbits we could call it the ‘What’s up, Dock?’. I said, ‘OK, it’s rabbits.’ We couldn’t pass that up.”

At the auction, Emma Fernald’s rabbit went for $10, purchased by her No. 1 fan – her mom, Vicky. Other items fetched a bit more including a foot-tall, blue, purple and pink clay rabbit playing the fiddle, made by island artist Miklos Pogany. There was a “Bunny Rabbi”, complete with yarmulke and full beard, made out of clay by Dan Wriggins and Mike Cormier. And there was a white bowl hand-painted with dancing rabbits by year-round resident and renowned painter and writer Ashley Bryan.

“This was my first attempt at painting on clay,” said the 83-year-old Bryan. “Marian is so wonderful – she kept after me about trying it. So I took the bowl and touched it with a brush, and I said ‘This is impossible.’ But eventually I could get the rhythm of it, and it was working. I used a fine-tipped brush, like in Japanese swift-brush painting.”

Baker let anyone who wanted to make a bunny come by her shop and grab some clay.

“We gave out blobs of clay to anyone who wanted to make a rabbit,” she said. “People got really creative, and had some great names, like ‘I Dream of Jeannie, the Light Brown Hare’, and ‘Sweet Bunny From the Rock’.”

Nick Dale, 16, who spends the rest of his year in Bethesda, Md., made a small hare out of red clay given to him by potter Kaitlyn Miller.

“They asked me to make one,” said Dale. “I saw this early impressionist painting – I can’t remember the name – of a little hare running alongside a train. I’m not normally an artist, but this worked out well.”

Plenty of other mediums besides clay were represented. Thom Heyer made a rabbit out of a piece of scallop drag that washed up on the shore. Amanda Ravenhill silkscreened a series of T-shirts featuring the outline of Little Cranberry with a tail and ears attached. And then, of course, there was the carrot cake.

“The bake sale aspect is a new thing,” said Starr Bright, a summer resident who organized the carrot cake sale. “Marian was doing the rabbit sale and I wanted to add something to it. If we’ve got rabbits, we’ve got to have carrot cakes. And we had nearly 30 cakes.”

Amy Philbrook bought a towering layer cake, decorated with real carrots with their feathery green tops still on, made by the Ravenhill.

“My husband loves carrot cake,” said Philbrook. “I’m going to bring it home and surprise him.”

Two of Philbrook’s sons, 10-year-old Abe and Peter, 8, each created a clay rabbit for the auction.

“This is great summer fun for all of us,” she said. “All these tiny rabbit figures, and some big ones, in a variety of approaches. It’s a lot of fun.”

In all, the auction brought in approximately $4,800 – double the owl auction two years ago. And the cakes brought in almost exactly $1,000, for a grand total of $5,800 to put towards the new fire truck.

“That’s what it’s supposed to be about,” said Baker. “Fun, fire trucks and rabbits.”

Donations to help the village with the purchase of the new tanker truck can be sent to the Islesford Volunteer Fire Department, PO Box 81, Islesford, ME, 04646. Emily Burnham can be reached at eburnham@bangordailynews.net.