Dinner for 8: With Calamities

I have some very nice "collectible" dishes I have had for decades. I adore them, and use them sparingly. Then I have "Everyday" dishes. They are....well...."blah". Now, our family isn't wealthy, and purchasing this particular set of dishes was a stretch. BUT, I have been blessed with a family of boys. We live on a working farm, and run into our own "calamities" almost daily. Humor gets us through the drudgery, and we love admiring and sharing "all the little things". As a farming family, food is a HUGE part of our life. These dishes fit the humor of our life filled with hard working men, yet, also fit my love of collectible dishes. I hate to use them...but we do. My boys request particular plates (and it's not because of the food that is on the plate, but the plate itself!) I always wanted a girl that would love the heritage of the dishes I've inherited through generations. These dishes are already cherished by the boys! I'll likely collect more, because I am sure they will adore these, and the memories of our family meals.... when they are older men.

We closed on our dream house in February. My husband bought the service for 8 as a housewarming treat to ourselves. Now, we are great big nerds and had never found a traditional set of china that felt like us- but Calamity Ware is right up our alley. We've been delighted with our purchase, though admittedly we do sometimes shuffle through the plates to find the right one for any given meal. The entire set is beautiful and slightly demented. The handwritten note from Don was a nice and unexpected touch. The dishes and mugs have a nice weight, the glaze is lovely and just setting the table makes me smile.

Love, love, love! Purchased for our 8th wedding anniversary (pottery). The elegant irreverence of the collection perfectly reflects our style and humor. Or 6 year old is tickled by all the fun characters on the mugs he uses while drinking his hot chocolate. Excited to share these when entertaining, and for daily use, for years to come!

Turns out we did need them though and we haven't looked back.

I found this through a Facebook ad and was dubious, showed my wife and she was instantly sold.

Order came very well packed and very quickly, everything perfect! The dishes are beautifully made, no flaws, good weight and a quality feel... all of which I was nervous about after pulling the trigger on the order.

Plus, we received a hand written card from the owner after the set arrived. It's like these guys still believe in customer service, or something!

The full sized and small plates are great, standard size. The shallow bowls are smaller than we are used to (now thinking about the super bowls...), but we've actually found that the force portion control of the smaller dish isn't a bad thing, especially coming out of the holidays and the weight gain that they brought.

The mugs are a fantastic size, good volume, not too big and not dainty tea cups.

Treat yourself, these are terrific and you deserve it.

This year my personal life fell apart right about the time the Pandemic hit, followed by the economic recession etc. I finally ordered a set of Calamityware to help me maintain perspective in the midst of everything. Wouldn’t you know it, FedEx lost half of the order! But the Giant Robot and company were fantastic with seeing me through the replacement process. Once my dinnerware arrived it was so beautiful I ordered the Tea set as well. I am now chuckling with every meal. Bring on the giant spiders and flaming monkeys!
Only kidding.

We had seen the mugs months ago and thought we would get one for our daughter for her birthday. However, the pandemic hit and everything went crazy. At some point, when we could finally have our family over for dinner (socially distanced, masks when not eating, etc), I put this china out. The table looked like a really formal place setting and then everyone had a very good smile over the wonderful drawings. Thank you so much for creating such a great set of china - both formal and informal and very, very fun.

I have loved blue willow since I was a kid, and had amassed a mismatched set that was getting worn out. When I saw the Calamityware designs they made me laugh and I thought yep, it's time to upgrade to a matching, but whimsical set. We bought these during the pandemic as a promise to the future. Yes, we will have dinner with friends and family again some day. We will gather for holidays and weekends and late evenings. In the meantime these keep us smiling breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack time. The designs are so intricate, for example each rim is different for each design. I am spotting something new each time I use a plate. The mugs are an excellent weight, shape and feel. My only quibble is the bowls are a bit shallow for every day use, but they would be perfect for soup for a dinner party.

Functional art? Sign me up!

I love these dishes. They look elegant and match my deep blue dining room walls, and then you get up close and notice a hilarious calamity. My dinner guests are always enthralled. I never point it out to them I just wait for people to discover it on their own.

Eclectic, well made. I look forward to adding more pieces to my collection soon.

gorgeous but giggly, batty but beautiful, and kooky but karmic.

MAKE MORE BIG BOWLS

We were thinking of getting Fiesta ware or some other kind of cool dining ware and then I saw the Calamityware sets. At first I thought it was just a nice set of chinaware until looking closer.
Teradactyls, octopuses, robots whirlpools, very subtle little anomalies and all sorts of critters emerge. We’re still exploring all the fun things in these pieces.
Beautifully crafted and fit for the most elegant dinner party or casual snack, these are great and don’t disappoint! They came wonderfully packed and arrived quickly. Well worth it!!!