Calamityware Reinvents Toile With Its Subversive New Tableware

Toile is a classic fabric and pattern that usually depicts quiet, peaceful scenes of drowsy shepherds, sheep, quaint villages, and lovers lounging under trees. Of course, we love any twist on a classic, which is why we're fond of Calamityware's plates. From afar, this blue-and-white porcelain looks like the pastoral patterns you’ve seen a million times before. But peer closer and… is that a robot ravaging the village? Wait, there’s a sea monster and dinosaurs on the attack, too! Oh, and there’s a vortex swallowing everything in its path.

Clearly, this is not your grandmother’s toile.

Created by artist Don Moyer, these designs started out as drawings in his sketchbook and feature a mixture of French toile and chinoiserie motifs. As he explains, “When I inherited a traditional, Willow-pattern plate and sketched it in my notebook, I couldn’t resist the temptation to add a pterodactyl in the sky.” We support that impulse.

After a number of people urged him to transfer the designs to plates, bowls, and mugs, he writes, “Sometimes, it’s obvious when a drawing could be the basis for a good product. To me, a good product is one that can be beautiful, useful, and funny.” And after a successful Kickstarter campaign, Calamityware was born.

As its name implies, the theme is based on the idea that “things could be worse,” and so you’ll see a little bit of every major sci-fi disaster or monster featured on each piece. There are also tiny, hilarious moments, like in the middle of a UFO invasion: Can you spot the lone, mopey black cat amid all the flora and fauna?

Artist creates hilarious, subversive take on classic toile designs.

Calamityware

Place these plates in front of your family and watch their eyes pop when they realize what they’re really looking at. It's a subversive take on the most dignified of classic patterns. You cheeky host, you.