@Mominohio wrote:
@loriqvc wrote:
I have many Temp-tations pieces and have never experienced cracks or problems with any of them—but then again, the majority of my pieces are the red polka dot pattern from back in the day when quality control seems to have been much better.
I really wish Tara would bring back the red snowflake-and-stripe collection for the holidays; it's not cheesy (umm, I mean "whimsical") or too formal or specific to Christmas, so I get a lot of use out of the few pieces I was able to gather when it was new. (And, of course, the red polka dot dishes look great with it.)
@loriqvc
Your good luck with Temp-tations is very much based on your mostly having the polka dot pattern.
I have just a couple of pieces of the polka dot, and about 17 tons of other patterns, right back to her very first set she ever bought.
There is just something different about the polka dot. It is heavier, thicker, better glazed, and there were very few flaws or complaints with that pattern.
I have always believed the pattern was discontinued for a couple of reasons.
First, I think they couldn't get it made at a reasonable price anymore. It was such good quality, the price to manufacture must have gone up beyond what Q thought they could sell it for (or made enough profit relative to the other lines).
And it made the other lines look bad, as they continued to craze and crack. And boy they do. I've even received pieces brand new from the warehouse with crazing all over, and many many pieces crazed after some usage.
There really was no good reason to discontinue the polka dot. It was very popular, sold out in lots of colors, and people have begged for it to come back, but to no avail.
I'm kind of over the whole brand, and rarely buy anything. Have sold off some of mine, and should sell off a lot more, as I have enough to furnish 10 kitchens!
@Mominohio - I definitely do notice that all my polka dot pieces are very high in quality. And I'm surprised that the pattern has never returned; you'd think it would save TT some money in the "hand painting" approach when there is so little to paint.
I also think my polka dot pieces have held up better than my other TT pieces because I mainly use them as "partyware." My everyday dishes are white and blue, but for whatever reason, red just says "party" to me, and the color scheme fits a lot of holidays and events. I have several of the recent figural fruit strawberry pieces as well, and they also seem to be of a better quality than other TT products. I'm not sure what is going on with the QC (if anything!) in the TT factories. The few times I've tried to purchase items as gifts, they've all gone back immediately due to awful paint jobs.
Overall, I have classic/traditional decorating tastes even though I love a good theme every now and then, so all the flowery and cutesy TT pieces hold no appeal for me whatsoever. Unless it truly is a ploy to make the "most popular" (i.e., most available) patterns more attractive, I have no idea why Tara doesn't bring more modern pieces to her line. In the past year or two, she's come up with a few good patterns that are more simple and classic, but she tends to only offer them in 9x13" bakers, which everyone has too many of, right? That's not a good way to gauge a pattern's popularity.
Anyway, I'm with you on selling off the old stuff, too; in just the past two weeks, I've sold three TT items on ebay and have three more waiting for a buyer now--and not a single one of these items was ever used. Sigh.
Blogs & Forums
Forums
Blogs
