About this Product
Dennis's HandmadeSea Shell Candle Plate
Measures: 4-1/2" wide x 7/8" high (11.43 cm x 2.22 cm)
Use to hold votive candles or short pillar candles.
Can also accommodate jewelry, coins, candy or perhaps to serve a couple bonbons.
Tea bag holder.
This bowl was created on the potter's wheel using very pale teal colored porcelain clay.
OUTSIDE:
Pale teal colored porcelain clay, almost looks like a warm gray.
Sides flare out as they ascend towards the rim.
Sides are completely glazed with glossy, dinnerware safe, lead free clear glaze.
INSIDE:
Very subtle rings of pale blue/gray with a hint of honey.
Bottom swirls are subtly visible through the glaze.
RIM - Top of the rim was split while on the potter's wheel, using a ball tool, and pinched at four equal points around the top circumference.
Small agateware colored porcelain sea shells line the circumference of the rim. (See "How This Was Made" Section.) The rim and shells were glazed with a glossy, dinnerware safe, lead free clear glaze.
Wheel thrown and hand glazed by Dennis.
Colored Standard 365 Porcelain Clay.
Glazed with dinnerware safe, lead free glazes
Dishwasher, microwave and oven safe.
Kiln fired to cone 6 (2232 degrees Fahrenheit)
Dennis's initials with happy face carved on the bottom.
TrompPottery
Meet the Maker
Teresa Tromp
Dennis Tromp
My son, Dennis, and I create Colored Porcelain, Functional Pottery on the potter's wheel, and/or handbuild using slabs, coils or pressing clay into a plaster or bisque mold that we wheel-throw on the potter's wheel.
There are various Colored Porcelain Clay techniques we are constantly experimenting with.
Neriage - a wheel throwing technique which involves 2 or more colored porcelain clays, spun on the wheel, integrating the colors.
Nerikomi - a hand building technique piecing together different sections of colored porcelain design, and either forming a slab built vessel or a press molded vessel.
This is perhaps the most difficult colored porcelain clay technique, as cracks can occur at any stage of the process. (the unmentionables - cracks)
Mishima - this technique can be applied to handbuilt or wheel-thrown pottery. After the greenware (or raw) clay has stiffened to leather hard stage (not quite bone dry, but dryer than wet clay) a design is engraved into the clay. The grooves, or channels created during the engraving process, are filled with a colored slip (wet, colored clay). After this dries sufficiently, the excess slip is scraped off, leaving the surface of the pottery smooth and level.
Sgraffito - sgraffito is an Italian word meaning - to scratch. This colored porcelain clay technique is the opposite of mishima. A layer of slip (wet clay) is applied to the surface of the pottery, and then a design is carved into the wet slip. This etching reveals the color underneath the slip. With sgraffito, the design is not flush to the surface of the pottery; it is slightly raised, and the etched design does not get filled in.
Relief Carving - I enjoy carving colored porcelain clay with various flowers and sometimes leaves with a bas-relief, or low relief design..
We color all of our porcelain by hand to create one of a kind color combinations.
Selling our work helps inspire the journey.
Your purchase(s), not only allow us to pay for more pottery supplies, but they also motivate us to produce a greater finished product.
Thank you to all the people who have helped inspire us along the way.
How it’s Made
Wheel-thrown on the potter's wheel by Dennis.
Hand glazed by Dennis.
This candle plate is made with a very pale teal (looks almost pale warm gray) colored porcelain clay that we color ourselves.
Top of the rim was split while on the potter's wheel, using a ball tool, and pinched at four equal points around the top circumference.
Dennis created small agateware colored porcelain sea shells using a resin mold, and placed the small sea shells around the circumference of the rim, inside the groove created with the ball tool. This keeps the shells seated in the valley, and not sitting above the rim.
After the plate was wheel-thrown on the potter's wheel, trimmed to form the footring and sea shells placed, it was fired to cone 04 (1945ºF).
After applying a glossy, dinnerware safe, lead free clear, the plate was then fired a second time to 2232ºF. (Cone 6) The glaze melts in the (very) hot kiln and fuses to the pottery, creating a solid, shiny layer that seals the ceramic.
We use commercial glazes that are labeled dinnerware safe, and/or food safe / lead free, and a Cone 6 porcelain pottery clay that vitrifies (becomes glasslike) at cone 6.
Shop Policies
Processing Time:
Weather permitting, we ship between 1 to 3 business days from your order date.
Shipping Rate:
$5. Flat rate United States. I prefer to ship our pottery Priority Mail with tracking number.
Return Policy:
You may return your pottery to us within 14 days of its tracking number delivery. Customer is responsible for return shipping charges.
Shipping Pottery: When packing your pottery for shipping, I will always pad the box with plastic pillows, and recycled newspaper. Each item is wrapped in bubble wrap.
Care Instructions:
Most of our pottery is dishwasher, microwave and oven safe (up to 400ºF), however it is always best to handwash handmade pottery, especially if there is delicate carving on the vessel.
For oven use, we recommend placing in a cold oven and heating to 400°F maximum. Especially important is do not place it over an open flame or stove top. DO NOT place a frozen dish directly in the oven because it will cause an extreme temperature change and may crack the vessel.
My son, Dennis, and I want you to be happy with your pottery purchase from our home based pottery studio, here in North Carolina.
We are not production potters, and do not normally create more than two items that might resemble each other in appearance. All of our pottery is one of a kind, and not duplicated.
We do not accept custom orders at this time. HOWEVER, if there is something you'd like to see in our inventory, such as a particular flower or color, or color combination, it can be inspiring to our creative process.
