Daniel Bloch

Daniel Bloch was born in the Tuscan hill town of Bibbiena and now lives in New York and Columbia County.  As a boy, he grew up around people who worked with their hands and he spent his after school hours in the blacksmith shop.  A big treat was working the bellows.  In his 20s, he moved to New York, studied geology, and traveled for two years to Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Nepal. The zenith of the trip was seeing Mt. Everest.  It was beside the tracks of an Indian train station that he saw a potter throwing cups that were used by the tea walla to serve tea.  Once used, the cups were thrown away just like we discard paper cups in our country.

Many years later, while working as a self-employed carpenter, Daniel signed up for pottery classes on the 17th floor of the tower of New York’s Riverside Church. He liked working with slabs of clay as it reminded him of his carpentry work except that clay allows for much more flexibility. Shortly after he began hand building in clay, he created a boldly painted blue and white striped box with a lid, entered it in his first juried show, and won honorable mention. 

He now works in the studio of Columbia University’s Teachers College with several of the same students from his first class at Riverside Church.  He has shown and sold his pottery for over 40 years and his work is included in a number of private collections both in New York and abroad.