Warning: materialistic nonsense!
What's up with dinnerware??
This is, of course, wedding-inspired angst, with pictures,
We thought we'd chosen our official dinnerware for the registry - fine-looking sort of asian-style stoneware, two-tone, black on the back and crackle-glaze light-blue on the front. $50-70 (depending on when you got it) for 4 settings of plateplatebowlmug. Dirk's main criterion was a steep-sided bowl that would hold a whole serving of curry.
Specifically, this, from Sears:
Then I read the reviews of it - about 10 unique reviews over 2 sites, for an average of 1.5/5, none >2. All said it was lovely but fragile, and/or would split in two in the microwave for no reason. That means crappy firing process, generally poor-quality stuff. So now what??
There are other very similar sets for similar prices from different retailers, though none of these bowls is as appealing:
Bed Bath and Beyond,
Linens/Things
Target
All of these are 16-piece, 4-setting boxes in the $50-70 range. Is this "good daily-use dinnerware"? Or is it going to just break when I sneeze at it?? Am I crazy for thinking that this should be the stuff that you use until your kids go off to college, at which point they use it for another 8 years? (not that I'm ranting on behalf of future children, just on behalf of plates taking a long time to fall apart)
I know I have no interest in fine china - nor do I have storage space. But the next step up is casual china, which basically means brand-name stuff that they expect you'll use a lot, and in general is supposed to be durable. All I can say is, at those prices it had better be durable. It doesn't seem crazily expensive until you add it up.
The Noritake versions, at:
$50 per setting
or $30 per setting
So, if you assume I'm not changing my mind about the idea that having 12 plates is a good thing (so I can have 8 guests and not have to wash every dish in the house getting ready)... that means [(12*$30=$360)+servingware]>$450, except that I actually like the first pattern better, but maybe not an extra $200 better, though at that level it's kind of a moot point. Seriously, $700 is a lot to spend on plates.
The only time anybody would buy this is when they're getting married and think they can convince somebody else to buy it for them, but that's still $700 that has gone out of the general economy and into crazy-plate-land. Of course, that's still less than talking to a potter and getting them to make a set of plates and bowls for us, which I'd kind of considered - but that runs $60-90/setting, so definitely no "dinnerparty set of 12" on that front... though from a "where did that $1000 go?" perspective, much more understandable to me.
I think on some basic level, I just don't get it - is there some minimum expense necessary to have plates that don't break?
Except I know that, in science terms, I'm plotting against the wrong variable here - the "goodness" vs "cost" plot wouldn't be any kind of line, just some random points with a vague upward trend on average. The real question here is, how do I identify non-sucky plates? blargh.
This is, of course, wedding-inspired angst, with pictures,
We thought we'd chosen our official dinnerware for the registry - fine-looking sort of asian-style stoneware, two-tone, black on the back and crackle-glaze light-blue on the front. $50-70 (depending on when you got it) for 4 settings of plateplatebowlmug. Dirk's main criterion was a steep-sided bowl that would hold a whole serving of curry.
Specifically, this, from Sears:
Then I read the reviews of it - about 10 unique reviews over 2 sites, for an average of 1.5/5, none >2. All said it was lovely but fragile, and/or would split in two in the microwave for no reason. That means crappy firing process, generally poor-quality stuff. So now what??
There are other very similar sets for similar prices from different retailers, though none of these bowls is as appealing:
Bed Bath and Beyond,
Linens/Things
Target
All of these are 16-piece, 4-setting boxes in the $50-70 range. Is this "good daily-use dinnerware"? Or is it going to just break when I sneeze at it?? Am I crazy for thinking that this should be the stuff that you use until your kids go off to college, at which point they use it for another 8 years? (not that I'm ranting on behalf of future children, just on behalf of plates taking a long time to fall apart)
I know I have no interest in fine china - nor do I have storage space. But the next step up is casual china, which basically means brand-name stuff that they expect you'll use a lot, and in general is supposed to be durable. All I can say is, at those prices it had better be durable. It doesn't seem crazily expensive until you add it up.
The Noritake versions, at:
$50 per setting
or $30 per setting
So, if you assume I'm not changing my mind about the idea that having 12 plates is a good thing (so I can have 8 guests and not have to wash every dish in the house getting ready)... that means [(12*$30=$360)+servingware]>$450, except that I actually like the first pattern better, but maybe not an extra $200 better, though at that level it's kind of a moot point. Seriously, $700 is a lot to spend on plates.
The only time anybody would buy this is when they're getting married and think they can convince somebody else to buy it for them, but that's still $700 that has gone out of the general economy and into crazy-plate-land. Of course, that's still less than talking to a potter and getting them to make a set of plates and bowls for us, which I'd kind of considered - but that runs $60-90/setting, so definitely no "dinnerparty set of 12" on that front... though from a "where did that $1000 go?" perspective, much more understandable to me.
I think on some basic level, I just don't get it - is there some minimum expense necessary to have plates that don't break?
Except I know that, in science terms, I'm plotting against the wrong variable here - the "goodness" vs "cost" plot wouldn't be any kind of line, just some random points with a vague upward trend on average. The real question here is, how do I identify non-sucky plates? blargh.