Dennis Del Rossi

Originally from southern New Jersey, Dennis is a self-taught woodworker and first began working with wood in Laramie, Wyoming, where he lived for 7 years in the 1990s. After moving to the North Country, he opened up his own rustic furniture business in Canton, combining the Rocky Mountain log furniture style with Adirondack themes and local wood. He still creates rustic furniture but started turning bowls in 2013 and has developed a true passion for turning.

All the woods are locally sourced, either from harvested trees or blow-downs from friends’ and neighbors’ properties. He prefers working with sugar maple and black cherry but finds beauty in all varieties of hardwoods. Once the wood is procured, it is cut into bowl blanks; the blanks are then turned into rough bowl forms and set aside to dry for six months to several years. Each bowl is then turned again to its final form and sanded to a fine finish. A food-safe finish is applied to most bowls and are labeled as such.

The enjoyment comes from seeing a simple block of wood evolve into a finished bowl and from not knowing at the start the exact shape the bowl will take, letting the wood speak for itself. With wood chips flying and the smell of the various types of wood surrounding him, Dennis feels a strong connection to the tradition of wood turning. His passion is revealing the hidden beauty in a block of wood.