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Calamityware

About a month ago, I embarked on a freelance gig spreading the word about Calamityware—quirky porcelain, paper, and fabric projects that my friend (and former boss) retired graphics designer Don Moyer has come up with. I am charged with trying to find newspaper and magazine people as well as bloggers to talk about these fun, practical, and (sometimes) beautiful items.

The Calamityware series started in 2011 when Don inherited a traditional, Willow-pattern plate and decided to redraw it and add the excitement of a pterodactyl. Over the next few weeks, he drew several more plates—each with a different calamity. When he posted his sketches to his Flickr site (https://www.flickr.com/photos/36106576@N05/), people encouraged him to reproduce his drawings on porcelain, and the first in a series of successful Kickstarter projects, a plate with flying monkeys, was born. Since then, Calamityware has seen 10 plates, a mug, a set of small plates and bowls, a puzzle, 4 bandanas, and 2 letterpress prints. Just a few days ago, Don launched the Sea Monster Jamboree Shower Curtain, based on his letterpress print of sea monsters. Kickstarter named it a "Project We Love." It has 28 days left to fund, and is already almost 3/4 of the way there. 

 I never really followed Don's projects until I was asked to do this. But since then, I have an appreciation for them. If you are extremely traditional, Calamityware might not be for you. But if you like looking at things a little differently, if you have some specific or unique tastes (poodles, frogs, robots, sasquatches, sea monsters, pirates, volcanos, skeletons, space worms, etc.), or if you just want to liven up your china closet, wardrobe, or handkerchief or puzzle collection, chances are good you can find a calamityware product for you or someone else.  

Below are a few pics of the products. If you are already thinking about the holidays and gift-giving, consider backing the shower curtain on Kickstarter (or checking back next month for another launch; you can view the past products here). Or visit the online store at calamityware.com.

Bad Neighborhood puzzle (750-piece jigsaw puzzle with bonus "warm-up" puzzle)




Calamityware Plate 5: Pirates

BADBandana 1: Angry Paisleys

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