Luna Garcia is not just another pretty plate. It’s a pretty artist-made plate that can change its looks with the drop of a napkin, a wave of a paintbrush, a flash of creativity.
And it’s part of a trend, too, a trend toward chameleon-like tableware that can switch styles almost as fast as you can change courses.
“People don’t want fine china for everyday ware,” says Grace Tsao-Wu, whose Lincoln Park store, Tabula Tua, carries beautiful tablewares from the world over. “People used to invest all this money in fine china that sat in the closet most of the year. Now they are investing in china they can use every day. Something that doesn’t look like what the next-door neighbor has.
“All the entertaining has gone casual. I hear that all the time from customers. They want something they can take in more than one direction.”
Depending on the accessories or tables with which they are paired, Luna Garcia tableware–dinner plates with matching or contrasting color salad plates, chili bowls, cups or mugs, a wide range of serving pieces–can pass as contemporary, primitive, playful, even tropical.
There’s also the Southwestern look–or “desert” look, as Cindy Ripley would have it. Ripley–the real-life potter behind Luna Garcia, the fictional Tex-Mex woman invented in 1979 by Ripley and her artist-husband, Curtis–prefers the label because many people don’t equate Southwest with sophistication. And her desert line definitely is sophisticated.
“There’s a big concrete table at a store named The Upper Crust in Palm Desert — done all in sand and black (Luna Garcia) that they’re afraid to change because they have sold the entire table 10 times,” she says.
“I’ll tell you what it is they like,” Upper Crust owner Margie Schag says of her clientele, “the beautiful form and the matte finish. It is like running your hand over butter.”
That’s because of the satin matte glazes that lend a sensuous richness to all the looks of Luna.
Tsao-Wu likes all of them, but leans to the contemporary. “The slate, cobalt and white is a crisp look–Calvin Klein, with a clean kind of a beach feeling to it,” she says.
Two years ago, Ripley added simple geometric decorations to the repertoire–squiggles, dots, curves in contrasting colors graced the rims of her plates. With a dozen colors, cobalt being the most popular, Luna Garcia can configure some 1,600 custom-order design possibilities.
“No two orders have ever come out alike. Each has a different twist to it,” says Tsao-Wu.
That was the piece de reqsistance for Lori Montana, executive director of the Illinois Arts Council. Originally attracted by “all the beautiful colors”–cobalt, raspberry, forest green, jade, peach, grape, mustard, black, white, slate, celadon and sand–Montana really became enamored of the interactive, creative opportunities that Luna Garcia affords.
She wound up buying six forest green and six raspberry dinner plates. She chose the same number and color of salad plates, but had them customized with peach dots along their rims. (It takes about four to six weeks on the average to get pieces customized at no extra charge.)
Her next order was small berry bowls in peach with raspberry dots. Her third order was six raspberry and six forest green coffee mugs.
That versatility makes Luna Garcia similar to a classic American collectible. “If you mix the colors up,” says Tsao-Wu, “Luna Garcia is kind of an updated version of Fiesta Ware,” the streamline, vitrified Deco dinnerware in jazzy colors that first appeared in 1936.
Luna Garcia plates also are more like elegant ceramic picture frames for food, not mere calorie containers. Every piece is signed and dated, like any artwork.
Not surprising that a line of functional sculpture for the table was created by two people trained as fine artists. In 1979, Cindy Ripley, a painter, figured out a way to make a living moonlighting at something she loves to do, working out of a spare room in the back of her house in Richmond, Va. Curtis also became involved in the design and the creation of the colors and glazes for Luna Garcia.
Luna Garcia got its label by taking the first name of Cindy Ripley’s grandmother, Luna, and tacking on the name, Garcia. Garcia, says Ripley, just seemed to fit with their original pottery, which was highly influenced by Mexico, the American Southwest and the Ripleys’ native Texas.
Unexpected was the fun of watching the fictional Luna gather character and romance through the years. Some still are convinced she exists.
However, the Ripleys will blow their cover when they make a personal appearance at Tabula Tua in October.
Spotlight on food
Even from the beginning, Ripley really wanted her wares to be functional.
“The most conscious thing is that they were made to work with food,” she says. “One of my best friends in Richmond was starting a catering business at the same time. When I saw her bright orange spiced shrimp looking even more creative on my plates, I realized how important it is for food to look great on a plate or platter.”
She refers to her early work as “Classic Luna,” and says it is highly collectible. The dinnerware had a real Southwestern feeling, because of the reddish terra-cotta clay body, the center of which was slip-decorated in bright colors with snaky squiggles around the unglazed rim. The serving pieces were highly decorative, with naive images of chili peppers, asparagus and other vegetables a favorite theme, and deliberate variations in the glaze that highlighted their handmade quality.
In 1985, the Ripleys, then in their mid-30s, moved into a 4,000-square-foot studio in Venice, Calif. The new space gave them the room to do more of a production line, still hand-painted but more functional and far less decorative.
The new line includes dinner plates, salad plates, luncheon plates, deep sculptural chili bowls, a mug reminiscent of American diners of the ’40s, huge serving bowls and platters, and the latest, a tumbler.
This line is a lot tougher than the Classic Luna.
“You’d almost have to drop it on concrete to chip it,” says Ripley.
The shapes are similar to those used in the Classic Luna but more oversize, with a heftier weight.
Prices for the current line range from $25 to $30 for a berry bowl or coffee mug, to $300 for one of the giant serving bowls. The 12-inch dinner plate is $52; the 10-inch salad plate, $42; the 9-inch luncheon plate, $38.
Since there still are people who collect the Classic Luna, Ripley continues to make a small amount of it, but sells it only through the shop in her studio.
Latest in the Classic Luna line are plates and platters decorated with palm trees and scallions, and a dog and cat dish. A tall pitcher is relatively new, along with a little curvy vase.
Last winter Luna Garcia also began making tile (sold through Ann Sacks Tile and Stone). “We’ve done two big tile bathrooms for a palace in Saudi Arabia, and that was fun,” Ripley says.
Cindy and Curtis Ripley will give a presentation on how to mix and match Luna Garcia at 1 p.m. Oct. 19 at Tabula Tua, 1015 W. Armitage Ave.; reservations are recommended, call 312-525-3500. She will be in the store from noon to 5 p.m. Oct. 19.
Luna Garcia tableware is sold at Tabula Tua; Adesso, 600 Central Ave., Highland Park, 847-433-8525; Material Possessions, 54 E. Chestnut St., 312-280-4885; and Ann Nathan Gallery, 218 W. Superior St., 312-664-6622.
Luna Garcia tiles, in a variety of sizes and colors, sell for $7 to $11 each (molding and relief tiles are available for $11 to $20) at Ann Sacks Tile & Stone, 501 N. Wells St., 312-923-0919.
RESOURCE GUIDE
Here is information about where you can buy the tabletop accessories shown on our cover:
Whimsical
Mariposa spiral charger, $75 each; raspberry Luna Garcia lunch plate with peach dots, $48; peach Luna Garcia bowl, $40; and Michael Aram silver-plated Triton flatware, $75 for five-piece place setting; all at Tabula Tua, 1015 W. Armitage Ave., 312-525-3500.
Desert
Rosewood charger, $45; green Luna Garcia lunch plate, $48; mustard Luna Garcia serving bowl, $95, and small bowl, $32, with white dots; and Michael Aram’s silver-plated Gibralter flatware, $75 for five-piece place setting; all at Tabula Tua, 1015 W. Armitage Ave., 312-525-3500. Cotton napkin, $2.50 at Crate & Barrel stores; vintage cloth, $30 at Urban Gardener, 1006 W. Armitage Ave., 312-477-2070.
Sophisticated
Slate Luna Garcia dinner plate, $52; slate Luna Garcia bowl, $40; Sasaki’s stainless Orbit flatware, $100 for five-piece place setting; Simon Pearce bell wine glass, $46; and Mark Rossi slate blue linen napkin, $20; all at Tabula Tua, 1015 W. Armitage Ave., 312-525-3500. Argento glassware salad plate, $11.95 at Crate & Barrel stores; Michael Graves condiment set for Alessi, $250 at Motif, 1101 W. Webster St., 312-880-9900; and Artex white cotton organdy tablecloth (not available).
