Heath Ceramics
| February 04, 2008

Edith Heath helped put California ceramics on the map—imbuing pottery with the mellow tones of mid-century modernism so prevalent at the time. Despite her death in December of 2005, her legacy is firmly intact and her influence on the worlds of architecture and design is as evident today as it was in the ’60s.



Her distinctive stoneware clay body was characterized by its low firing temperature and heavy percentages of manganese, which, when matched with her elegant, understated glazes, gave her work a rare speckled pattern. Jermayne MacAgy, the acting director of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor museum, took one look at Heath’s hand-thrown dinnerware and immediately offered her an exhibition. The show opened in September of 1944, and within a few months Heath was selling her work at exclusive outlets like Gump’s, Bullock’s, Marshall Field’s, and Neiman Marcus. A year later, with a national distribution agreement in hand, Edith officially established Heath Ceramics, with Brian as business manager, accountant, and shipping clerk.



The Heaths quickly expanded their production facilities and capabilities, moving their start-up to the bohemian enclave of Sausalito, where they began to integrate light-industrial applications like jiggering and slip casting to meet ever-growing demand. Reacting to criticism often heard from other studio potters who said she was selling out, Heath replied, “Good design doesn’t depend upon whether something is made by hand. In fact, there are some very junky things that can be made by hand. The idea of making things on a potter’s wheel in an industrial society really is an anachronism as far as
I am concerned.”

Link:  Heath

Tags:  california, ceramics, heath, mid-century, pottery

Topic: Furniture Design