About the Potters

Teresa Tromp / Dennis Tromp

Teresa Tromp resides in Shelby, North Carolina. 
North Carolina is filled with artistic inspiration from the numerous wildflowers
that line the landscape, to the lush tapestries of its ocean dunes. 

She graduated from Paier School of Art in 1978.

During her career Teresa has been employed as an art director for Safari Club International in Tucson, Arizona, as well as various print shops in Connecticut and Arizona.
Although employed as a graphic artist most of her 30 year art career, 
her love of fine art craft has never left her. 

Artist’s Statement
The play of opposites is a key factor in all of my artwork.
Complementary colors, the contrast between light and dark, bright and subdued,
rigid lines against soft dabs, smooth alongside texture.

The impression of fabric can be found in many of my clay vessels.
Having learned to sew at an early age, fabric inspires me more than sewing does.
Textures, patterns and colors can be "woven" into pottery using tools, stains and glazes.

Flowers, which have eluded me on canvas, come to life on pottery.
Delicate petals are sculpted, carved, hand glazed or formed utilizing colored porcelain clay.
For me, it's all about the flowers; usually the focal point on my pottery vessels.

Been painting since I was 10 - that would be over 55 years ago!
It's quite possible I've pursued every craft imaginable.
As of January 2017, wheel-throwing has been added to this list of creative endeavors.
In December 2022, a new ceramic journey began; coloring porcelain to create functional pottery.
Coloring porcelain has reignited our passion for creating pottery.
Sketching form and texture ideas, color combinations, making test tiles, combining colored porcelain clay techniques, and actually coloring the porcelain itself, are all part of the creative process.

Dennis Tromp resides in Shelby, North Carolina with Teresa, his mother.
He began his wheel-throwing adventure in the same class, in Wilmington,
North Carolina, as Teresa did.
Since beginning his colored porcelain pottery journey, Dennis has gravitated towards, neriage and agateware porcelain pottery vessels formed through hand-building and wheel-throwing.
Constructing pottery with coils, slabs, molds.
His true passion is throwing on the potter's wheel.
Tea bowls, spoon rests, cat bowls, dog bowls, bud vases and candle plates are items he is particularly interested in.
Dennis has begun to focus on seashells and leaves; introducing these press molded forms into his candle plates, soap dishes and bud vases.
Continually experimenting with placement and colored agateware.

Our Colored Porcelain Clay Journey
There are various Colored Porcelain Clay techniques my son, Dennis, and I are constantly experimenting with.

These are a few techniques we like to combine or use alone in our handcrafted pottery:

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.