Muiji's new crockery ranges include the chic Hasami range and new additions to Hajuki
After nearly 30 years of amassing furniture, crockery, art, and other household stuff, Middleagedad would happily sell the lot on ebay and start again. He has collected very little that he would not part with, whereas I have emotional attachments to pretty much everything we own. He see's it as a pile of stuff we've acquired (often while not thinking straight or under duress from small, fiendishly tired children), I see a carefully curated collection of considered 'pieces'.
I love the idea of having an empty house and a large(ish) pile of cash with which to go shopping for replacements, but in reality I'd be a wimpering wreck when it came to selling stuff off.
I could never, for example, sell the first bit of furniture we spent ages restoring, a beaten up printers chest we bought for nothing and spent hours scrapping orange varnish off to reveal its true oaky glory underneath. Neither could I sell the first proper picture middleagedad bought for me, or the set of Georgian glass finger bowls I bought for £25 at a junk shop in deepest Hertfordshire knowing that individually they are worth twice that each. Maybe it's a male/female thing, or maybe its a clutterer (me) versus minimalist (him) thing.
Anyway, the relevence of this is that the ONLY thing I feel no emotional attachment to at all is the contents of my crockery cupboard (JUST crockery, my glasswear I love). I have never been good at plates and bowls, I fall madly in love with chunky, homespun stoneware in earthy colours one week, only to be overwhelmed with affection for snappily thin bone china in refined antique white the next.
This week, for example Muji sent through a picture of its latest collection of simple, perfectly plain Hakuji (means white porcelein in Japanese) china, and I immediately want to throw all the patterned plates out and go 'all white'. This range of porcelain is made from a superior white clay found in Amakusa in Japan. The fine white glaze has a hint of blue in the finish and everything is microwave and dishwasher proof (more than can be said for the Georgian glass fingerbowls).
We love Muji for its ability to bring us great style and quality at a good price, I must admit I hadn't realised the china was so nice. I particularly love the Hasami range of super fine, almost translucent porcelain dishes made in the Hasami area of Japan, famous for its ceramic expertise and very good value, starting at £4.50 with no piece over £19.95. The clean functional shapes look so very stylish in plain white and would be a brillaint start for a new crockery collection. At least the minimalist approach would appeal to middleagedad….
