Add some serious style and design to your home with our stunning Tamegroute candle holders. Each pieces is a unique work of art. The entire process of creating this Tamegroute pottery is based on the pure craftsmanship of each potter and the colour and shape is never exactly the same.
Perfectly imperfect, Tamegroute pottery is seriously beautiful with all its lumps, bumps and imperfections, stunning wood-fired glaze and fabulous iterations as bowls, vases candlesticks and plates. Expect lumps and bumps and chips and holes, expect slightly unglazed imprints where each piece rested on the rack whilst being fired. If you want a perfect glaze and consistent sizing and shape, stop right here. Tamegroute pottery will give you hives.
Please note: due to the handmade nature, this pottery includes some indelible holes, cracks and chips which are an effect of the crafting and glazing process and considered part of the artisan individuality of each pottery piece. All dimensions are approximate as each piece is hand spun, no moulds are used and each piece is different to the next. This is part of the charm and character of Tamegroute and is to be expected and applauded, and not viewed as faults.
Tamegroute village, in the Sahara Desert on the border of Morocco and Algeria, is the home to seven Atelier families, each owning a wood-fired oven and their own workshop. The craftsmanship and skill is authentic to the region with its beautiful distinctive rich green or mustard yellow glaze. All raw materials are natural, with clay collected from nearby palm groves. This process begins at the River Draa where potters dig up the clay and then spin and shape the clay into unique pieces. The harsh sun of the Sahara also plays a role in curing the pottery.
The pottery is hand dipped into the glazing mixture giving the pottery its distinctive colours. Since most Tamegroute pottery is only fired a single time, the glaze is applied before it enters one of the seven ovens in Tamegroute. Palm tree branches and wood waste from local carpenters are used as fuel for oven which is fired to a very high temperature.
The unique process is like no other and each piece produced bares its own marks, patterns and traits. The kiln stands leave indelible imprints on the surface of each piece and these marks are the authentic tell-tale signs that these handmade pieces of art hale from this historical home of pottery.
The signature green glaze contains 80% manganese, 19% silica, cobalt, 1% copper, barley flour, and a particular type of rock found in local mines a few hundred kilometres away. The mixture is thinned with water in a huge basin and left to mature for about a week. Some say it's the copper together with the clay out of the Draa river-bed which forms the characteristic green colour. Others say it’s the firing process that is believed to be the secret to the multi-shade green colour that is only found in Tamegroute pottery. Either way, the pottery is unique and unable to be replicated elsewhere. Interestingly, for many collectors, these pieces are popular as sculpture, rather than candle holders.
Product description:
- Single candle sticks: around 18cm, 37cm and 45cm
- Approx 30cm triple new style
- Approx 45cm single new stile
- Approx 60cm D shaped new style
- Hand-made clay pottery with rich green or new mustard yellow wood-fired glaze
- Made in Tamegroute, Morocco
