Back months ago when I decided I'd had enough of shared households and wanted it to be just the cubs and myself I set about replacing my old Blue Willow pattern crockery with something else. I was so over blue and white, doncha know. Over the next few months I collected a variety of very pretty green and purple crockery from different sources but, like so much of my 'glory box' items they had to be packed away.
I think that desire to get rid of everything and start afresh was tied in with the whole not wanting to be where I was mindset, but now that time has moved along and I'm no closer to moving out I've had a rethink about things, specifically the Willow pattern crockery. I like it, looking at it makes me happy and I don't really want to use something else. But what about all that other stuff I bought? It won't go to waste, when I've got space/a place of my own it'll come out of the boxes but I don't think I'll be using it all that often. The reason is that all the green/purple pieces are stoneware rather than porcelain. Stoneware glazes sit on the surface of the item and are ridiculously easy to chip, unlike porcelain which is an inherently stronger material anyway and the designs are bonded to the surface. Yes you can get an amazing array of colours with stoneware but what's the point if you can knock bits of the glaze off with just a light bump against a hard surface?
I bought my 8 place setting Blue Willow crockery 20ish years ago, when I first started working and it's lasted in good condition. Sure a couple of the dinner plates have broken, as have most of the sandwich plates and half of the bowls but it's never chipped. And I can find replacement pieces for everything except the pasta bowls at my local supermarket. Which is what I'm going to do now - gradually replace the broken bits and bring the set back up to its original number. : )
Now if I can just find somewhere that stocks the pasta bowls I'll be laughing...