Delft Blue with a Darker Side
Delft Blue is often associated with flowers, windmills and traditional Dutch landscapes. These are familiar designs, but a ceramic painter can also choose entirely different subjects. A spiderweb or a tattoo-inspired motif requires a different design, not a different craft. Around Halloween, such a combination attracts a little more attention. Yet above all, it reflects the creative freedom that comes with decorating ceramics.
The skull in art history
Skulls have appeared in art and decoration for centuries. In the 17th century, Dutch painters often included them in vanitas still-life paintings, alongside books, hourglasses or extinguished candles. These objects served as reminders of the transience of life. The skull was therefore not simply a striking object, but part of a larger story.
This does not mean that every skull depicted in art carries the same message. Skulls also appear in illustrations and tattoos, sometimes for their symbolism and sometimes simply because of their distinctive appearance. The eye sockets, teeth and pronounced contours give artists plenty of opportunities to create their own designs.
From ceramic painter to tattoo artist
Tattooing and traditional ceramic painting may seem like two completely different worlds. Yet the two crafts have much in common. Both require attention to lines, proportions and surfaces that are not always flat. A design intended for someone's arm needs a different composition from an image on paper. The same applies to a ceramic vase or sculpture.
Jan Born is familiar with both crafts. As a young man, he learned the art of ceramic painting from his older brother Gerard. He later became a tattoo artist and opened a tattoo studio in Rotterdam. Eventually, he returned to decorating pottery. For his ceramic skull designs, he had the shapes produced at our factory in Gouderak. This brought together his experience as a tattoo artist and his knowledge of traditional ceramic painting once again.
Painting a shape with intricate details
At our factory, three-dimensional ceramic objects are produced using various techniques, including slip casting in plaster moulds. The ceramic skull is also cast in a plaster mould. After drying and the first firing, the result is bisque ware: fired earthenware ready to be decorated. This provides the foundation, but with a hand-painted object, the design still needs to be carefully adapted to the shape.
A plate offers a relatively straightforward surface to paint on. A skull, however, has hollows and protruding features. A line across the forehead follows a different curve from one along the eye socket or jaw. The painter must therefore consider not only the accuracy of the design, but also where each element is placed. Something clearly visible from the side may be partly hidden when viewed from the front.
A ceramic skull with Delft Blue tattoo motifs
This can be seen in the hand-painted ceramic skull with a Delft Blue tattoo design by Jan Born. A spiderweb stretches across one side of the skull, while a large spider is painted on the other. The decoration also includes a bird motif and smaller details, such as an eight ball and the number 13.
The blue decoration against the white background makes the piece instantly recognisable as Delft Blue pottery. At the same time, the imagery comes from the world of tattoo art. Rather than a traditional scene painted onto an unusual shape, the result is a design that follows the curves and contours of the skull itself.
A familiar shape, a different design every time
With a decorative ceramic sculpture, the painted design plays a major role in determining its appearance. In our collection, for example, the same skull shape is also available with a floral decoration. This gives the ceramic piece a completely different character from the spiders and tattoo-inspired motifs.
There is no need to create a new ceramic shape to achieve this difference. The same basic form can be decorated in various ways. By working with our own moulds and hand-painted decorations, we have the freedom to apply a wide range of painting styles. This allows designs that might not immediately be associated with Delft Blue to find their place within the traditional craft of Dutch pottery painting.
