As a designer, you can lead the Market or you can follow the Market. If you lead you are taking a risk and will only know if you are successful after you put yourself out there for criticism or praise. Some people are uncomfortable with that position. The market will let you know. If you follow the market and design what is safe, you are already too late.
As long as there is the blue sky above or the deep blue sea, blue will be in fashion.
Our experience over the last thirty years (and having tried many variations on this theme) is that it is better to lead by expressing your own individual point of view. We try to aim for high quality that others cannot imitate and don’t cut any corners in that regard. If we perceive a need, we try to fill it. This is not to say that following trends is unimportant, but it is less important than many believe…
For instance, we often see the headlines’ “Blue is back in fashion.” Well, blue has never been out of fashion. As long as there is the blue sky above or the deep blue sea, blue will be in Fashion. We humans just innately have an affinity for colors of the natural world.
Speaking of blue, there are many kinds: peacock blue, sky blue, gray blue, misty blue, turquoise blue, but our favorite is cobalt blue.
Cobalt is a navy blue color that leans toward purple.
Cobalt, a naturally occurring ore, was in use dating back to the 8th and 9th centuries and was mined in Persia and used in the Far East in ceramics and jewelry. The properties of cobalt, that deep and melty blue color are only unlocked in ceramics at very high temperatures…above the temperature to fuse other oxide colors. Fired at the highest temperature it yields a soft gray-blue; medium= deep and just barely melted; low= sharp edged and blue-black.
Cobalt is one of those looks we are known for and we often fire it onto gray-body porcelain which is what was available in China during the pinnacle of the Chinese export era in the 1700s. But more than that, we are known for Color with a capital C. These are our patterns that are made on gray body porcelain, though not all of these are cobalt decorations:
- Tobacco Leaf
- Blue Canton
- Chinoise Blue
- Mandarin Bouquet
- Famille Verte
- Sacred Bird and Butterfly
- Indigo Wave
- Golden Butterfly
Then there are more dinner patterns in blue but not gray body; rather using bright white body:
- Imperial Blue
- Virginia Blue
- Blue Lace
- Cornflower Lace
- Blue Shou
- Blue Dragon
- Emmeline
- Peacock
- Lapis
There are so many colors and shapes that it is not advisable to show them all to you here. You can see theam all on our website and there is a list of retailers across the United States for an up-close and personal look. There is also a downloadable catalog. The classics are a good jumping off point for your collection because they have already withstood the test of time, with the added twist that our hard porcelain can go in the dishwasher and the oven, even when featuring gold. Happy search.