Angela’s Pick
Who finds all this stuff, anyway?!
Meet Angela Pilloud—she’s our shopkeep who dreamed all this up. forever a forager and lover of the little things, Angela is always on the lookout for new finds, with an eye for the useful, the beautiful, and the well-made. From one visit to the next, you’re guaranteed to never be bored!
And now, without further ado... Angela’s pick of the moment.
Putten, Gelderland, the Netherlands
since 1975
Delft Blue (Delfts Blauw) pottery is a style of Dutch earthenware born in the city of Delft during the 17th-century Dutch Golden Age. In response to the luxury Chinese porcelain arriving on Dutch East India Company (VOC) trading ships, Dutch potters developed their own more accessible version and over time made it entirely their own, painting quintessentially Dutch scenes of windmills, tulips, landscapes and pastoral scenes onto their pieces. The distinctive color is achieved by painting clay with crushed cobalt oxide, which transforms into its signature blue during firing, then sealed beneath a clear glaze for a brilliant finish.
Jaap Heinen founded his ceramics studio at a Dutch market stall in 1975, painting Japanese Imari porcelain by hand. A decade later, he opened a small shop on Amsterdam's Prinsengracht that still stands today.
For three generations, the Heinen family has mastered every step of the process from mold-making and clay composition to the iconic cobalt paint, glazing, and kiln-firing. Heinen Delfts Blauw creates its own clay using a mix of raw materials sourced from around the world. The glaze and the iconic Delft blue paint are also produced in their own workshop, where making the paint takes no less than eight days!
Pieces we carry:
Delft Blue animal figurines // Delft Blue canal houses // Delft Blue tulip vases