Hello! I am not a ceramics expert but I've bought a few pieces of ceramic dishware from a few different high-quality, reliable artists. Unfortunately they are consistently cracking on me despite me taking good care of them (as far as I can tell).
In each case, I verified with the artists that their dishes are dishwasher, oven, and microwave safe, though I take extra care for each. I load them carefully in the dishwasher and avoid them touching other dishes. When I use them in the oven, I always place them in a cold oven and heat them together, and I never exceed 400 degrees F. And I never thaw frozen food directly on them in the microwave.
However, I keep finding large cracks in the plates that make the plates unusable without damaging them further. The first two times we noticed them as we were removing them from the dishwasher. The third time we had sat down to eat dinner and one of the plates just loudly cracked while sitting on the table without anyone touching it.
Are we just getting unlucky? Is there something we should be doing differently? Is ceramic dishware just not meant to last?
