Mariposas

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

Mariposas is a masterpiece made with twenty pounds of clay, thrown on the kick wheel. The stone-burnished mineral clay pigment is the only fired color. There is an immense amount of sgraffito etching and shave-away design down to the native slip clay after firing — and the exposed shaved areas, particularly the butterflies themselves, are hand-painted in one-of-a-kind detail throughout the whole piece.

The twenty day symbols are deeply etched in their interior textures, then individually painted with metallic color so the mystical symbols float around the body. The deep textures that give the piece its celestial motion are etched before firing and painted with a golden hue after — a masterful large sculpture uniting that color with the contemporary butterfly 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: 16 in
• Width: 14 in
• Depth: 14 in
• Clay body: 20 lbs, kick-wheel thrown

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.