WE DID IT! De Keramieken Kaart van Delft (Ceramic Map of Delft)is complete and officially unveiled!

What an amazing amount of work!!!! That is what people often exclaim when they realize the map they are looking at is actually a mosaic made with over 1000 handmade pieces of ceramic! Here’s how it was created…It began when mosaic artist, Nan Deardorff-McClain, an American who lives in Delft, became fascinated by an old 17^th century map by cartographer Frederik de Wit. When she looked at this figurative map, she saw a mosaic. She had over the years organized quite a few largescale community-made mosaic projects in Delft’s city center, but this one was different…it would involve ceramics! The public was invited to participate in workshops in ceramics and mosaic. There were over 500 participants and many pop-up clay workshops in schools, cafes, museums, hotels and historic locations all over Delft. At the workshops, participants created individual ceramic houses, bridges, windmills, watchtowers, churches, animals, and ships. Nan enlisted the help of Colja de Roo a local ceramic artist, to help with all the technical aspects of working with clay and after 20 ceramic workshops all the pieces were glazed and fired and ready for the second phase of the project, to put together the map as a giant mosaic. This required 120 more workshops to create the streets, canals and green areas, then mount and grout each panel. The map consists of 45 panels of mosaic and the entire map covers an area of almost 19 square meters. Ceramic houses with open windows received a mirror backing. Nan likes the people who help make these mosaic projects to see their reflections on the mosaic as their participation made the artwork possible. Once the panels were in place on the wall, Nan invited the public to help fill in the mosaic to join them together, giving the mosaic the appearance of one huge, flowing mosaic map. The project took 2 years with all the planning and financing involved. Without the sponsors you can see listed on the map’s legend on the righthand side, this project would not have been possible! A rather dull side-street has been transformed into a lively place to have a geographic connection with the city of Delft!