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NEWS / Arts
Featured Artists: Bobbie + Bob Dalpiaz
Text & Photography by Michael Wikan on 09/11/2007
Featured Artists: Bobbie + Bob Dalpiaz
Text & Photography by Michael Wikan on 09/11/2007
Bobbie Dalpiaz actually began her professional career as a music teacher. What began as art lessons with her children soon became a passion, and she realized that pottery was her true love. She now teaches pottery and art at Sayville High School on Long Island NY. She has attended numerous workshops throughout the east coast and has led many demonstrations and workshops on Long Island.
Her husband Bob, has recently retired from a rewarding career as band director at Brentwood High School. Throughout his music career Bob has been an active woodworker, constantly refining his skills. He is excited about his new opportunity to enjoy his passion for performing music and turning wood.
"In our travels, Bobbie and I both realized that it was rare to see pottery and wood combined in the same pieces. Bobbie was the first to realize that the exotic woods I was turning would beautifully enhance the glazes she was using on her pottery."
About The Work
All the pottery is stoneware or porcelain and is dishwasher safe and microwave safe. All Glazes are lead-free and food safe.
All wood can be polished if desired to maintain luster. All functional pieces (goblets, cheese and dessert platters, and knifes), have a more durable polyacrylic finish and can be safely hand washed. Many woods, such as, cocobolo, canarywood, rosewood, ebony, bubinga, padouk, etc are used. On occasion other materials such as, agates, coral, brass and copper are used to further enhance the pottery.
Every piece is truly one-of-a-kind and hand made. This makes it very difficult to exactly duplicate any piece, although some pieces can be very closely duplicated. If you would like more than one of a specific item, contact the artists and they will be happy to discuss it with you.
Question & Answer
How did you get involved in using this medium?
Bobbie and I started out as teachers. To satisfy a creative urge, Bobbie decided to take pottery lessons. I knew nothing about woodworking, but decided to make some simple furniture and in fact, made Bobbie's first wooden kick wheel. Bobbie took lessons for less than a year, we bought a house in Sayville, left the kick wheel behind and began to raise our family. Over a long period of time, art became Bobbie's true passion. She became a certified to teach art 10 years ago and began teaching art a Sayville Middle School. Over the last five years, pottery has become her focus and she has been instrumental in revitalizing the ceramic department at Sayville High School. I have continually developed my wood working skills while I maintained a rigorous schedule as a teacher and musician. I started wood turning about three years ago.
How did the marriage of the wood and ceramics come about?
Through our travels, we saw many beautiful wood and ceramic pieces, but never the two together. One day Bobbie dropped a ceramic lidded jar and broke the lid. She asked me to make a wooden lid to replace the broken piece. We were amazed at the beautiful effect of the wood and pottery together. We've been experimenting with it ever since.
Are there any challenges you have to face using this medium?
There's a lot a serendipity involved with pottery. There is slight variation in each glaze firing, shrinkage occurs throughout the process, and at times you have to contend with warpage. Working with wood is a little more exacting. This makes matching wood and pottery difficult at times. This is why the pottery must be complete before the…
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Her husband Bob, has recently retired from a rewarding career as band director at Brentwood High School. Throughout his music career Bob has been an active woodworker, constantly refining his skills. He is excited about his new opportunity to enjoy his passion for performing music and turning wood.
"In our travels, Bobbie and I both realized that it was rare to see pottery and wood combined in the same pieces. Bobbie was the first to realize that the exotic woods I was turning would beautifully enhance the glazes she was using on her pottery."
"When a pottery piece is completed and glazed, we collaborate on what woods or other materials might work well with the piece. Working out of our home studio, it has been a great source of enjoyment for us to collaborate in this way. We continually try to produce interesting, unified pieces combining our respective mediums."
About The Work
All the pottery is stoneware or porcelain and is dishwasher safe and microwave safe. All Glazes are lead-free and food safe.
All wood can be polished if desired to maintain luster. All functional pieces (goblets, cheese and dessert platters, and knifes), have a more durable polyacrylic finish and can be safely hand washed. Many woods, such as, cocobolo, canarywood, rosewood, ebony, bubinga, padouk, etc are used. On occasion other materials such as, agates, coral, brass and copper are used to further enhance the pottery.
Every piece is truly one-of-a-kind and hand made. This makes it very difficult to exactly duplicate any piece, although some pieces can be very closely duplicated. If you would like more than one of a specific item, contact the artists and they will be happy to discuss it with you.
Question & Answer
How did you get involved in using this medium?
Bobbie and I started out as teachers. To satisfy a creative urge, Bobbie decided to take pottery lessons. I knew nothing about woodworking, but decided to make some simple furniture and in fact, made Bobbie's first wooden kick wheel. Bobbie took lessons for less than a year, we bought a house in Sayville, left the kick wheel behind and began to raise our family. Over a long period of time, art became Bobbie's true passion. She became a certified to teach art 10 years ago and began teaching art a Sayville Middle School. Over the last five years, pottery has become her focus and she has been instrumental in revitalizing the ceramic department at Sayville High School. I have continually developed my wood working skills while I maintained a rigorous schedule as a teacher and musician. I started wood turning about three years ago.
How did the marriage of the wood and ceramics come about?
Through our travels, we saw many beautiful wood and ceramic pieces, but never the two together. One day Bobbie dropped a ceramic lidded jar and broke the lid. She asked me to make a wooden lid to replace the broken piece. We were amazed at the beautiful effect of the wood and pottery together. We've been experimenting with it ever since.
Are there any challenges you have to face using this medium?
There's a lot a serendipity involved with pottery. There is slight variation in each glaze firing, shrinkage occurs throughout the process, and at times you have to contend with warpage. Working with wood is a little more exacting. This makes matching wood and pottery difficult at times. This is why the pottery must be complete before the…
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