Ingrid Plastic Party Ball Factory Tour

I like to think of Ingrid as the official "Party Ball" people. Even when the ball's not around they are still into party aspect of plastics.  Like these great stacking cups available at Laura's Last Ditch on Etsy.

Close up thanks to Laura's Last Ditch on Etsy. 

From Chicagoland comes this hard molded plastic. Is it melmac? Or a form thereof? Who knows. I first saw the balls all over the place in the 1980's though many people say they've been around since the 1960's--I wonder if this is indeed true. Could it be they are so used to seeing the like-look of Massimo Vignelli's Heller dinnerware and  Guzzini Alimntari's designs in the past and so they thought the spacey Ingrid of the 1980's has been around forever?

I had a listing for them back in the 1980's at

INGRID 

3601 N. Skokie Highway, North Chicago, IL 60064.  

I looked them up on the Google map. At first like most companies I figured they weren't making anything but instead just distributing it. Now I am not so sure because a 500,000 square foot warehouse lies at that address.  Wow. That was either a ton of distributing (employee lot on the side, visitor lot on the front and trains in the back) or they were pumping out some fresh plastic.

At first I thought that perhaps Ingrid stole Massimo Vignelli's Heller molds, (cups and mugs are very simliar) but in essence, they are a bit different.  I suppose we'll never really know.  No matter what, there's a lot of them floating around today.   I am uncertain if Rubbermaid eventually acquired them, but that was a rumor I heard that I have been unable to prove--and I don't really know when Ingrid folded.  I found a lot of references to housewares such as laundry baskets and other plastics but not sure if they sold these directly or produced for another company.

Original Party Ball Box courtesy of MK Retro on Etsy!

MK Retro on Etsy has an excellent Example of the original party ball in it's box, new old stock. You can see here how it was sold, and how lovely the colors look. If you aren't familiar with them, the pieces stack inside the plastic ball (which has a carrying strap) just like the photo above!

Although the cups were a bit small for sodas, it would serve perfect at a park picnic with a bit of wine and cheese!  the rainbow colors made them very sought after during this time. 

Ingrid appears to be more flexible in their party ball dinnerware as far as the plates go, and carrying case. These actually have some flexibility to them.  The cups however are a harder plastic. Uncertain if either of these plastics are melmac or melamine at all, but whatever it is, it sure is funky! What are you waiting for? Go get this set now!

Color-Flyte Branchell Collection of Melmac

SugarCookieLady on Etsy is cleaning out her melmac above. Wowsy! Just look at all this Colorflyte melmac dinnerware you can buy for $99.00. Sure is great for a starter collection - keep the pieces you need and sell off the rest to recoup some of your expenses.  I am sure some of you may think this is a high price to pay for plastic used melamine dishes, but not so, Color-Flyte by Branchell is still extremely collectible.  I remember fifteen years back a set of Branchell Colorflyte in the original box sold for $250-$300, almost four to six times the original store price in 1955!

If you are lucky enough to piece together a set by thrifting or flea marketing, there is fun in that too, but some people need to start a bulk collection somewhere and it seems SugarCookieLady has some other collections too. 

Branchell melamine dinnerware was designed by Kaye Lamoyne (a guy, go figure with a name like Kaye) and is still pretty much indicative of retro 1950's design.  It is somewhat easier to assemble a complete set because it was popular. Most was used by housewives and so finding it in great unused condition will be a challenge. It sure can be fun collecting the original colors shown here on the Branchell Melmac information site of glade green, mist grey, glow copper and spray lime. Some of the colors in this set look like the Branchell's Royale line which is super cool to collect to and in the same overall design, just a different color palette.

In my opinion, platters sugars, creamers,  and serving dishes are still easy to find but salad tongs and salt and peppers are getting harder and and harder to find. You can see a photo of the mist grey ones here in this picture, and their original Color-Flyte sales boxes peeking from the back.   Super cool!

Original colorflyte salt and pepper boxes are in the back and shown at RetroChalet on Etsy.

Collecting melmac is fun.  You may be interested in How to Clean Your Melmac Dishes here.

Guide to Brookpark Melmac Plastic Glasses

ValsUnique.etsy.com has given us a great guide to glass sizes put out by Brookpark!

 
Remember going into all you can eat buffets (hey, some still use them) and seeing these glas-tic cups? You know, the ones that resemble glass but are high quality plastic? GLASTIC!  Brookpark, Boonton, and Texas Ware among others made them. I found this great set for sale over in ValsUnique Etsy shop, and thanks to her we now have a complete guide as to what cups Brookpark actually made.

4 ounce short little juice tumblers. Photos: ValsUnique.etsy.com

The four ouncers would be juice glasses no doubt. How cute and little. These glasses have a frosted or textured appearance and aren't actually melmac but a heavy thermo plastic mix.  Now Brookpark melmac was all designed by Joan Luntz, so I am not sure if she fashioned these super cool goblets or not:

from valsunique etsy shop!

Now ValsUnique does mention one of the cups are chipped and this is not uncommon, in fact the heavy duty Boontonware cups I have are all chipped. For whatever reason these cups were prone to nicks and chips, and a lot of time got stress cracks in the plastic themselves.

Truth be told I found some just like this in an old Boontonware factory flier. So I believe  although some were designed to be commercially sold, the high temperatures of commercial dishwashers made the plastic become brittle over time and prone to chipping, cracking and stress cracks.

So we have:
4 oz juice tumblers
12 oz tea tumblers
12 oz goblets
and what else may we find?

This WHOLE set is only $45 at ValsUnique etsy shop so you should go nab it up fast!
I think this is a great price considering these are hard to find!
To a collector assembling a set like this would be very difficult.

Find more posts on Brookpark Melamine and Melmac Dinnerware history here.