Jenna Rinaldi has a passion for bobblehead figures. So the Huntington High School art teacher wanted to inspire and motivate her students with a special project involving creating ceramic bobbleheads.
“I currently own close to 80 bobbleheads, mainly those of the New York Mets,” Ms. Rinaldi said. “My creative crafts classes studied the history and art of bobbleheads ranging from the early 17th century forms beginning within the Asian culture, to today in contemporary art.”
Studying the history of bobbleheads proved to be enlightening. “We learned that the tradition of bobblehead making was adopted by Major League Baseball in the 1960s,” Ms. Rinaldi said. “At this time, teams created bobbleheads that represented their team as children with cute faces. These were made from paper-mache.”
It was a fun unit for the Huntington High School student-artists. “Bobbleheads today are made from many different media such as plastic, porcelain and ceramic,” Ms. Rinaldi said. “It was most exciting to see students brainstorm their ideas and watch their bobbleheads come together. Students loved when their bobbleheads successfully nodded!”
Freshman Marley Joseph said she had the most fun sculpting and painting her penguin in its bowtie and top hat. With a love for the Mortal Kombat video games and movies, junior Jackson Ortes Galvez had the opportunity to create the character, Reptile.
“What I most enjoyed doing this project was creating the figure of Dora,” junior Keylin Quintanilla Villalobos said. “I liked making the shapes to form the body. At first I thought it would be very difficult, but it was not. This project has been one of the best for me and although I spent weeks doing it, in the end I loved it. All thanks to Ms. Rinaldi for always helping all of us to do our best.”
Ms. Rinaldi earned an undergraduate degree at Hofstra University and a Master of Arts degree in studio art at Adelphi University. Prior to coming to Huntington UFSD in September 2019, she worked at Mineola, Syosset and Levittown and Evergreen Charter School in Hempstead.
