My favorite site from Delft was the Royal Delft porcelain factory. I especially liked seeing the process they use to create their pieces. It is hard to believe that they have used the same process
since the 1650s and only just started modernizing some of their
techniques. I was most intrigued by the painting step. As a dabbler in ceramics I have used cobalt oxide to draw patterns on vases before, however I could never get it to come out quite right. I believe this is because I have not used porcelain clay, but just regular clay. When we return I will have to make a plaster mold and attempt to make some porcelain slip casts. Hopefully I can get the correct mix down. I think it would be amazing to be able to paint patterns as well as the master painters at the Royal Delft porcelain factory...perhaps I may apply there one day if the engineering thing doesn't work out.
Outside of the process, I thought that all of the pieces were incredible and it is too bad that I do not have enough money to bring a handpainted piece home with me. I think that my favorite piece was the copy of Rembrandt's Night Watch. I had seen that very same painting the day before at the Rijksmuseum and their blue porcelain copy of it was just as impressive.
It is truly amazing the skill of the painters at the factory. The fact that they can paint such beautiful pieces by hand is astounding!
ReplyDeleteI also found that the process of making these pieces of Delft Blue was very fascinating. I thought there were more steps to making such art work but it seemed very straight forward. The time line per piece was also faster than I expected it was like 3 or 4 days for a smaller vase. I could never do this with the precision the master artist have.
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