Sea Reef

Sold, private collection. Inquire for a unique version as a commission.

A combination sculpture: a burnished black night sky, etched with symbols in electric metallic color, sits above a body of blue burnished color carrying the white dripping-clay agua technique. Shaved and shaped sea turtles, cold-painted after firing, swim through fully etched and carved reef and shells, with a slight metallic texture at the base creating the feel of texture beneath the water — from open sea to native night sky, working seamlessly throughout the design.

Kick-wheel thrown, burnished, and sgraffito-carved in my San Juan de Oriente studio.

My Process

Every Atlantis sculpture begins with the same Gran Nicoya materials that have been worked in San Juan de Oriente for more than a thousand years: local dug clay, sourced slip clay, burnished slip color, and etching and carving back down through those layers to the clay beneath.

Enhanced slip colors and my own application techniques bring innovation to that palette while the traditional methods stay exactly as they were.

And here is the irony: it is the native no-glaze method that opens the door to the contemporary layer. Because nothing seals the surface, I can come back after the firing and hand-paint modern color directly into the exposed clay.

Specifications

• Made by Paul Devoti and the Atlantis Studio team
• Origin: Atlantis Studio, San Juan de Oriente, Nicaragua
• Tradition: Gran Nicoya clay technique
• Glaze: none — all fired color is clay slip
• Edition: unique, one of one
• Signed: Atlantis — PHD
• Availability: Sold, private collection
• Height: 10 in
• Width: 7 in
• Depth: 7 in

Frequently Asked:

Are designs repeated? Every sculpture is a one-of-a-kind expression within a design collection. Nothing is cast, duplicated or reproduced — each one meticulously handcrafted.

Do you take commissions? Selectively, with a waiting list. Commissions work best starting from a finished Atlantis piece — a variation on something already seen. This is a good place to start.