Blue Willow is my imaginary china pattern boyfriend. I’ve loved it as long as I can remember. I don’t know where a poor urban child would have seen it — Maybe at my Aunt Julia’s? — but I love it.
According to antiques.lovetoknow.com, the pattern is English, and the “legend” is fake.
ME: Do we care?
ALL REPLY: NO!!!
According to simplemost.com’s 10 Interesting Facts About Blue Willow Classic China, the “Blue Plate Special” (which is what they used to call nowadays’ Special of the Day back when I was a girl) was called the “BLUE PLATE Special” because it was usually served on a Blue Willow pattern “grill plate”, one of those segmented plates so your one food doesn’t touch your other food. Come to think of it, that might be where I found my love for Blue Willow, although I don’t remember having eaten off those plates. Unlike now, I used to hate for my one food to touch my other food!
Somewhere along the line, I got a Blue Willow pattern mug, which I love beyond telling. For some reason, Charlie HATED it, and I had to withstand years of insistence to keep it out of the black hole … I mean basement. You have to choose your battles in marriage, and my Blue Willow mug was a hill I would have died on.
ANYWAY, #4 Daughter, the amazing Sara Marian, understands. She bought me a turtle (my spirit animal) dish/ashtray? with the pattern on it, and had a stein and a shot glass (she knows me so well!) made for me in it, too.
This all said, you may imagine my delight when Maniology came out with a Blue Willow pattern nail stamping plate! !! !
So here are my nails this week:
The white base coat is Maniology’s Bam! White. The blue stamping polish is Maniology’s Shibori. The stamping plate is Maniology’s M252.
And thank you to all who have ordered from Maniology using my 10% discount code, MomGoth10. I’ve been rewarded with several new plates and a couple of monocle stampers. Happy!
A WRITING PROMPT FROM ME TO YOU: A character is willing to fight tooth and nail for something that seems trivial.
MA
Dan Antion
February 21, 2022 at 7:59amLove this post. My mom loved blue willow and that is what she used for “nice” meals and holidays. Everyday was the unbreakable Malmac (melamine) – she knew me so well. Great nails, my mom would smile.
Marian Allen
February 21, 2022 at 9:36amI’m always so happy to meet or hear about another Blue Willow pattern enthusiast. The only thing Sara hates about it is an archeologist thing: They started making it in like 1776 and they’re still making it today, and TONS of pottery manufacturers make it and don’t always put their mark on the bottom, so a piece of Blue Willow is absolutely no good at helping date a site or fill layer. Otherwise, she’s also a fan.
RAAckerman@Cerebrations.biz
February 21, 2022 at 7:43pmI guess this means you can eaat off your fingernails, right?
Marian Allen
February 23, 2022 at 9:34amLOL!
acflory
February 21, 2022 at 9:23pmI used to love Blue Willow pattern porcelain as well, but I haven’t seen any in decades. I love old-fashioned things and antiques generally. Some of the loveliest things I own were gifted to me by my Mum who also loved antiques. We clashed about a lot of things but…not about porcelain. 😀