Bowls!

[firstfrost]

I stopped by Mud Flat Pottery yesterday for their Somerville Open Studio weekend, and, as might have been expected, bought four bowls. Well, really, three bowls and one... um. It's shaped like a glass, but it's not glass, it's ceramic. It's taller than a mug but has no handle. There must be a real word for this... a ceramic tumbler?

"You and your bowl fetish", says justom. He's just mocking me, but there's something to it. Bowls and plates are equally practical, but bowls are... friendlier. A plate is held with the fingers, an excercise in tension. A bowl is held with the hands, even cradled. The shape is natural, weighty, rounded. A shape for containing, enclosing, both decorative and protective, where a plate is just a barrier between the food and the forces of gravity.

There are probably worse fetishes to have. :)

Comments

The Eternal Struggle Between Bowls and Plates

[kirisutogomen.livejournal.com]

Lots of cultures don't even use plates. I've never heard of a society without bowls.

There are obvious practical reasons having to do with not accidentally dumping food on the ground. Plus, in general we seem to invent Things to Hold Your Food long before Dining Tables. One might argue that this makes plates more advanced than bowls. Or perhaps plates are more pretentious than bowls, as they imply overly formalized rituals for eating.

What is it with containers?

[countertorque.livejournal.com]

Chica just loves cute little containers. This includes bowls, but more often just about anything that is stackable and sealable. She came home one day with a little container with a lid on it that was exactly the same size and shape as the single muffin inside of it. It was very cute.