The Royal Delft Factory
by Estefany
The roadrunner group took public transportation (local bus and train) to small cute town called Delft. Delft is a very quiet, and beautiful town. We noticed many stores were closed today, we don't know why. It could be their own holiday or something else (Jen's note: The Easter holiday undoubtedly affected shop hours). The town was beautiful with river canals all over the place with many bridges and many people were using their bikes on the street. We saw a lot of green grasses and plants. Then, we went to the Royal Delft factory. That's where they make porcelain table are using old traditional ways which is similar to making pottery.
We were fascinated with their master artist who is an expert for drawing on porcelain with black ink made from something with similar properties as charcoal which will turn into blue when exposed to heat. The black powder has natural cobalt blue properties. The porcelain is put into the oven to harden the clay and it becomes shiny blue and white which is their famous trademark look. It's a lot of work and a long process to make one piece with so many details! We saw all kinds of designs (flowers, modern, places, people, and many more!).
The Roadrunner group had comments about our visit to the Royal Delft factory.
Alex: "I was fascinated that porcelain made from pottery with black ink. Also, I realized that those figurines were made from mold cast."
Augusta: "This is an amazing process of creating and the process of making various shapes of plates, cups, and all that is very complicated. It's challenging to paint on porcelain and seeing black ink change to blue. It's interesting that they have been doing this throughout 360 years."
Margaret: "It was neat to watch the porcelain with black ink change to blue when baked in the stove with high temperatures."
Lucille: "I learned that they made pottery from clay with black ink and it changes into blue and white. They used different kind of tools and supplies during this process. I also liked seeing Johannes Vermeer's painting "Girl With a Pearl Earring" on porcelain.
Vergena: "Royal Delft is a cool place to see different shapes of porcelain. I am fascinated with how they remade the picture of "Girl With a Pearl Earring" on porcelain.
Estefany: "I am surprised that they have a lot of processes to make porcelain with different art lines and work. I thought it would be much easier to make, but actually it was tough and takes a lot of time. Porcelains are beautiful to display."
After lunch and factory tour, the Roadrunner group went for shopping for short time. Some of them bought Holland's famous cheese to bring to America. We decided to go to our hotel to rest and get ready for other long fun day! :)
