Agree with @Sueliz - well said, @Cadjia! Very diplomatic. :-) And yes, it would be so nice to see non-floral choices, though I'm not sure that could convince me to try again. I would actually be really tempted (bad pun!) to try pieces that aren't painted. Tara, who seems like a really fun lady, had some really nice pumpkin tureens, if memory serves, last year. One was glazed naturally and the other was tan, I think. They looked very elegant.
The cracking/breaking usually occurs when a spot of glaze is missed, because of the type of stoneware or clay used. It's not tough like porcelain. It happened to me years ago. Goodbye painstakingly made stuffed peppers! Ouch! ;-)
I find the painting to be too poorly done to enjoy it anyway. With hand painting there are always unique qualities, but when some pieces are super faded compared to others, paint is dripping or the stamping is waaaay off, it's more quality control than different styles and abilities. So, all I can think of when I see the shows and the workmanship is, how hard do the poor Chinese laborers work at this factory? It seems as though the work is incredibly rushed, and they may have very strict numbers to keep in order for the factory to offer such low prices. By comparison, Lenox is hand painted in China also, but the work is beautiful. I'm guessing the workers are all talented, the Temptations crew just has to work much faster.
And yes, then there's the Polish pottery! The prices are very high. They make their money on quality, not quantity. Can you imagine their work environment compared to that of the Chinese workers? Night and day I would imagine.
I have a nice collection of vintage Pyrex!! It's held up beautifully. I think they were designed using decals. I found some old magazine ads for some of them that I have framed in the kitchen. :-) You can look through old women's magazines in antique shops (or eBay) for yours!