The charger plate has always been a great mystery to me. It is an object with little use that stays on the table for a limited time. This plate's primary function is to welcome you when sitting down at the dinner table, before leaving the way for the appetizer or the first dish. That is why, when I designed the Luna plates, I wanted to give more meaning to this object and make it part of the meal experience by having a real utility. The interesting part about this story is that the end-product does not match the initial desire. As I told you in my first article, the final result is often far from the first pencil line.
My original idea was to create a set of four plates with a charger plate that does not change but serves as a base for the four courses. To give the impression of a lunar eclipse, I wanted to make a matt black enamelled base plate and enamelled white plates that would be ¼, ½ and ⅓ of a circle. So as you serve, the eclipse effect is created by placing the white plates one after the other, gradually covering the charging plate.
Well, my dear friends, it was a total flop! As attractive as the idea was on paper, in reality, I faced two surprises. First of all, on the technical side, the firing process distorted the white plates. The second surprise was that the visual result was sorely lacking poetry, and was so far removed from the initial concept, that the product no longer had any interest.
However, taking a step back, there was an interesting detail: the black plate's texture, which evoked the moon's surface's irregularities. After speaking to Serge (technical director at Artoria), I discovered that not only this effect happened by chance, but there was no guarantee the team could replicate it at scale. He then suggested that I add texture with enamel hand stamping, which is the process of dabbing enamel either on a biscuit (white mat) base or on an enamelled (shiny white or coloured) base.
We then looked at different colours of enamels for the base and the stamping and started experimenting. It was quickly successful because navy blue dabbing on metallic grey brought a unique effect to the plate. However, we still had to work on the white plate to illustrate the concept best. Since the first white enamel tests were not very interesting, I then decided to go with a polished white biscuit with a gradient engraved material effect.
The result, which you now know, is a perfect contrast between the two plates, perfectly illustrating the initial lunar eclipse concept. Also, since each plate ended up with its own aesthetic, I decided to offer them individually or as a set.
You can use the Luna plates as charger plates, cheese, charcuterie or cake platters, or individual serving plates. I hope these plates find their place on your table to enhance your culinary creations.
Discover the Black Luna plate, the White Luna plate or the set.