The Solo Scale:

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One of the most recognizable patterns in the world is the blue & white patterns on porcelain. This became popularized as a result of the Royal Delft Pottery, located in Delft in Holland. Delft is within an hour of Amsterdam by car or bus. The workshop area itself doesn’t have a parking lot. However, there’s plenty of space in town nearby, so you don’t have to walk too far.

If you are going, you can take a guided tour. I highly recommend that if you do, go early in the day so you can be one of the first. That means you get pretty unrestricted access to the factory and can linger to look at things without having to fight for space with anyone else.

The tour begins with the history of the pottery, including the influences from Chinese pottery. As you continue onward, you see the evolution from the inspirations to Delft taking the next step to becoming the truly unique craftsmen that they are. Within the museum, you can see commemorative plates for special occasions like the moon landing and little Delft Miffy figures.

What really surprised me was the next step in the history. As people began to buy less Delft china within their houses, Delft had to pivot. That meant that instead of doing tableware, they applied the ceramics to something else — buildings. Inside the museum, the rooms move from smaller spots with a few displays to a broad open space that displays what ceramics look like when you put them on buildings.

This includes gates, tiles, doors, archways, and many more. Truthfully, I found the ornate and artful work of the building ceramic to be a lot more impressive than the fine china areas of the museum and could have spent the majority of my time here.

You get to wander through life-size examples of these building ceramics for a while before continuing to the last portion of the museum tour — the demonstrations. This is where you’ll meet employees of Delft, from the hand-painters to walking around the (very hot and humid in August) warehouse to see other steps in the Delft process.

This is the last stop before the end of the tour. As always, there’s a stop in the gift shop. There are a few items that aren’t exorbitantly expensive, but not many of them. However, there’s also a small café here and a fantastic little courtyard with a garden that you can spend your time in before you head back out to your next stop. This was probably my favourite part of the visit.

Visit the Delft Blue Museum on your own to see how this gorgeous form of art came to be!

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