Citoyens des Métiers D'art

Adresse

34863 Gleneagles Place
Abbotsford, British Columbia
V2S 7G5

Carte

Détails de localisation Call or text me at 604-308-7320 before you come to visit, just to make sure I'm home.

À propos

Debra Sloan wrote:
Dave Dobie and his wife Val run their pottery studio in Abbotsford, BC. In Dave's words, he has
been quietly making pots since 1975.

He initially trained with Herman Venema in Abbotsford. Herman lived just down the road from
where Dave grew up. Herman was a full-time potter, and he taught classes in the evenings as
well. Well known potter Cathi Jefferson was also a student in one of Dave’s first classes with
Herman.

After working a summer at Herman’s pottery in 1978, he then went to Georgian College in
Ontario and studied with the English potter, Roger Kerslake from 1978-1980. In 1979 he spent
the summer working at Stan Clarke’s studio in Surrey, BC. In 1980 he worked the summer at
Roger Kerslake’s studio in Ontario

Dave first set up a pottery in BC in 1981. He took over an existing pottery store in Fort Langley
that had been run by the Beardsley family for a number of years. After 2 years making pots full-
time and running the store, he then traveled, and attained a Communications Degree at SFU in
the mid 80’s.

From 1985 to 2005 he worked at Greenbarn Potters Supply with the redoubtable Stan Clarke,
and was the manager for his last 15 years there. During this time Val and Dave started a family
and pottery took a back seat to all the family activities for many years.

Once his youngest daughter reached high school in 2012, Dave got the pottery going again, and
started doing local farmers markets. He built a small gas kiln down at Herman Venema's rural
farm property in Abbotsford. There is also a salt/soda kiln there that gets fired a couple times a
year. Dave sells mostly at a variety of farmers markets in the lower mainland. He sold through
the Gallery of BC Ceramics, and sells through the Audain shop in Whistler, He also sells through
a number of other retail stores.

Dave provides a range of fine functional pottery for his Fraser Valley community, another
example of a BC potter (Gary Cherniasky, Darrel Hancock, Lari Robson, Heinz Laffin) who has
chosen the 'village potter' lifestyle.

Dave and his wife Val like doing farmers markets together on weekends. They say: “It’s a fun
outing, we spend the day together, visit with other vendors and the customers, and sell a fewpots.” Val was an elementary school teacher, and she makes slab pieces and small animal
sculptures.

Dave has kept a pretty low profile over the years. You won’t find him in any publications or
shows. He takes inspiration from a couple of other Fraser Valley potters, Ted Driediger and
Herman Venema, both of whom just quietly made pots for the local community.