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Heath Ceramics is a B Corp certified American company that designs, manufactures, and retails goods for tabletop and home, and is best known for handcrafted ceramic tableware and architectural
Heath Ceramics in L.A.
December 1, 2008 Los Angeles Times Founded in
Amos Klausner, “The Legacy of Edith Heath and Heath Ceramics” in Heath Ceramics: The Complexity of Simplicity, page 42. Heath has two manufacturing facilities: its original dinnerware factory in Sausalito (built in 1959), and a tile factory (established in 2012) in the Heath Building in
Heath Crosses the Bridge
T Magazine, June 28, 2012. Heath sells directly through its stores and its own website, having discontinued its wholesale business in early 2015.Carren Jao
How This Ceramics Company Is Moving Forward by Scaling Back
Entrepreneur Magazine, November 9, 2014. Heath maintains four physical sales outlets. In addition to its dinnerware factory and showroom in Sausalito, Heath has a showroom and clay studio in Los Angeles (opened in 2008);Brooke Hodge
Seeing Things: Heath Comes to Los Angeles
December 12, 2008, New York Times blog. a showroom within the San Francisco Ferry Building (opened in 2010); and their flagship San Francisco showroom and clay studio, co-located with the tile factory in the Heath Building (opened in 2012). Heath has won numerous awards for design, and in 2015 received the
In 2003, designers Robin Petravic, a product design engineer, and Catherine Bailey, an industrial designer, purchased Heath Ceramics from the Brian & Edith Heath Trust.Don Sanchez Heath Ceramics Celebrates 60 Years December 19, 2006 ABC7 News San Francisco Archived June 4, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
While the company was struggling financially at that time, with just 24 employees and approximately $1 million in revenues, the couple were attracted by the opportunity to bring back designing and making under one roof, enabling a stronger connection between the start of a design process and the result.Tracey Taylor
A Label of Pride that Pays
New York Times, April 22, 2009. While respecting Edith and Brian Heath's aesthetics and ethos, the couple set about streamlining operations and product lines; created new products; and began selling products from independent makers.Design Matters with Debbie Milman: Robin Petravic + Catherine Bailey
(podcast), November 2015. Under Bailey and Petravic's ownership, the company also began to expand its collaborations with artists and designers with shared design kinship and manufacturing values. A notable collaboration was with Alice Waters, founder and chef of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. The restaurant uses Heath dinnerware in the restaurant, called the Chez Panisse collection, and was the result of a collaboration with Christina Kim and Alice Waters in 2006.Amanda Gold
New owners mold revamped firm from same classic clay
San Francisco Chronicle, November 4, 2013.
In 2008, Heath opened its Los Angeles showroom and studio, its first location outside of the Bay Area. The studio was opened with artist potter Adam Silverman, who served as studio director until 2015.Nonlinear Path to Pottery
/ref> Subsequent collaborations have included those with Natalie Chanin of Alabama Chanin (resulting in a line of hand-etched dinnerware at Heath, evoking the hand-stitching of Alabama Chanin linens),Alexandra Lange
Table Setting: Natalie Chanin Dishes with Heath
T Magazine November 11, 2011 page 24. and designers
Ticking and Tocking in Playful Ceramics
New York Times, April 2, 2014. Heath has also collaborated with
/ref> and Commune Design to create lines of limited edition pieces. In 2013, Heath also invited a number of artists to collaborate on a line of one-of-a-kind clocks.
/ref> In 2010, Heath opened a showroom within the San Francisco Ferry Building Marketplace. Then, recognizing the need for dedicated tile manufacturing, Heath Ceramics opened its tile factory and flagship San Francisco showroom and clay studio in 2012.Pilar Vilades
Heath Crosses the Bridge
T Magazine, June 28, 2012. At the beginning of 2014, Heath exited the wholesale business, going direct to consumers via its showrooms and through its website. In late 2015, Bailey and Petravic authored a book on designing with tile, called Tile Makes the Room, a book exploring design through tile.Carren Jao
October 17, 2015. In 2016, Heath began to move beyond its traditional focus on tableware and tile, designing a line of wallpaper,Meredith Swinehart
New from Heath Ceramics: Wallpaper from Hygge & West
Remodelista, June 23, 2016 and introducing a line of soft goods.
Heath Ceramics website
{{authority control 1948 establishments in California Ceramics manufacturers of the United States Companies based in Marin County, California Manufacturing companies established in 1948 Design companies established in 1948 Art in the San Francisco Bay Area Manufacturing companies based in California Employee-owned companies of the United States
Heath Ceramics is a B Corp certified American company that designs, manufactures, and retails goods for tabletop and home, and is best known for handcrafted ceramic tableware and architectural tile
Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, Rock (geology), stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, wal ...
in distinctive glazes.Ann CusacHeath Ceramics in L.A.
December 1, 2008 Los Angeles Times Founded in
Sausalito, California
Sausalito ( Spanish for "small willow grove") is a city in Marin County, California, United States, located southeast of Marin City, south-southeast of San Rafael, and about north of San Francisco from the Golden Gate Bridge.
Sausalito's ...
, by Edith Heath (19112005) and her husband Brian Heath (19112001) in 1948, Heath Ceramics is now owned and run by Catherine Bailey and Robin Petravic, who purchased the company in 2003.Heath Ceramics website company historAmos Klausner, “The Legacy of Edith Heath and Heath Ceramics” in Heath Ceramics: The Complexity of Simplicity, page 42. Heath has two manufacturing facilities: its original dinnerware factory in Sausalito (built in 1959), and a tile factory (established in 2012) in the Heath Building in
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
.Pilar ViladesHeath Crosses the Bridge
T Magazine, June 28, 2012. Heath sells directly through its stores and its own website, having discontinued its wholesale business in early 2015.Carren Jao
How This Ceramics Company Is Moving Forward by Scaling Back
Entrepreneur Magazine, November 9, 2014. Heath maintains four physical sales outlets. In addition to its dinnerware factory and showroom in Sausalito, Heath has a showroom and clay studio in Los Angeles (opened in 2008);Brooke Hodge
Seeing Things: Heath Comes to Los Angeles
December 12, 2008, New York Times blog. a showroom within the San Francisco Ferry Building (opened in 2010); and their flagship San Francisco showroom and clay studio, co-located with the tile factory in the Heath Building (opened in 2012). Heath has won numerous awards for design, and in 2015 received the
National Design Award
The American National Design Awards, founded in 2000, are various awards funded and bestowed by the Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. There are seven official design categories, and three additional awards when applicable. Any supplement ...
for Institutional Achievement, awarded by the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, in recognition of Heath's commitment to business by design.
Founding and early years
After Edith Heath exhibited her work at her first solo show at thePalace of Fine Arts
The Palace of Fine Arts is a monumental structure located in the Marina District of San Francisco, California, originally built for the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition to exhibit works of art. Completely rebuilt from 1964 to 197 ...
in San Francisco in 1944, a buyer from San Francisco retailer Gump's
Gump's is a luxury American home furnishings and home décor retailer, founded in 1861 in San Francisco, California. The company was acquired by the Chachas family in June 2019 and announced that it would be opening a San Francisco location for ...
approached her to supply their store with her hand-thrown pottery using the company's pottery studio in San Francisco, and she accepted the opportunity.Amos Klausner, “The Legacy of Edith Heath and Heath Ceramics” in Heath Ceramics: The Complexity of Simplicity, page 26.
In 1947, Edith began to design and execute a limited hand-thrown production of her pottery and tableware with four apprentices in her own studio. Other retailers, such as Neiman Marcus, Marshall Field's, Bullocks, and the City of Paris began to order her tableware,Amos Klausner, “The Legacy of Edith Heath and Heath Ceramics” in Heath Ceramics: The Complexity of Simplicity, page 27 and in 1948 she opened Heath Ceramics in Sausalito. Edith designed the pieces and formulated the clays and glazes. Notably, she formulated the clay base for a single kiln-firing at a lower-than-normal temperature, one closer to that associated with earthenware bodies rather than stoneware. This reduced energy usage while producing a durable product.Amos Klausner, “The Legacy of Edith Heath and Heath Ceramics” in Heath Ceramics: The Complexity of Simplicity, page 25
In addition to running the business side of Heath, husband Brian Heath also oversaw engineering (inventing numerous pieces of equipment) and managed the business. By 1949, Heath Ceramics was producing 100,000 pieces a year.Klausner, Amos (2006). Heath Ceramics, The Complexity of Simplicity. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, LLC. p. 20. .
As the volume of orders increased, Edith designed a Sausalito factory space with the architecture firm Marquis & Stoller, which was completed in 1959.Amos Klausner, “The Legacy of Edith Heath and Heath Ceramics” in Heath Ceramics: The Complexity of Simplicity, p. 35.
Over the following years, Heath Ceramics continued to sell its ceramics directly and through retailers, and also began to supply restaurants with dinnerware. Its original 1947 line, Coupe, was followed in the early 1970s by Rim, which found broad success with restaurant proprietors. In 1992, Heath released the Plaza Line.Amos Klausner, “The Legacy of Edith Heath and Heath Ceramics” in Heath Ceramics: The Complexity of Simplicity (2006, Chronicle), by Amos Klausner, p. 38.
Heath also began to develop architectural tile in the late 1950s, and in 1971, Edith won the American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach progr ...
Gold Medal for her custom tiles designed and created for the Pasadena Art Museum, today known as the Norton Simon Museum
The Norton Simon Museum is an art museum located in Pasadena, California. It was previously known as the Pasadena Art Institute and the Pasadena Art Museum and displays numerous sculptures on its grounds.
Overview
The Norton Simon collections ...
.“Heath, Brian & Edith”, UC Berkeley Environmental Design Archives. Retrieved March 6, 2016.
With recessions, changes in taste, inexpensive imports, and the aging of Brian and Edith Heath, the company struggled in the 1990s.Amos Klausner, “The Legacy of Edith Heath and Heath Ceramics” in Heath Ceramics: The Complexity of Simplicity, page 39. The Heaths left daily operations of the company to employees in 1993. Edith eventually turned to a long-time family friend, Jay Stewart, to help establish the Brian & Edith Heath Trust to help create the legal mechanism for making decisions about the future of the business. Brian died in 2001, and Edith in 2005.Amos Klausner, “The Legacy of Edith Heath and Heath Ceramics” in Heath Ceramics: The Complexity of Simplicity, page 42.
Operations, from 2003 to present
In 2003, designers Robin Petravic, a product design engineer, and Catherine Bailey, an industrial designer, purchased Heath Ceramics from the Brian & Edith Heath Trust.Don Sanchez Heath Ceramics Celebrates 60 Years December 19, 2006 ABC7 News San Francisco Archived June 4, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
While the company was struggling financially at that time, with just 24 employees and approximately $1 million in revenues, the couple were attracted by the opportunity to bring back designing and making under one roof, enabling a stronger connection between the start of a design process and the result.Tracey TaylorA Label of Pride that Pays
New York Times, April 22, 2009. While respecting Edith and Brian Heath's aesthetics and ethos, the couple set about streamlining operations and product lines; created new products; and began selling products from independent makers.Design Matters with Debbie Milman: Robin Petravic + Catherine Bailey
(podcast), November 2015. Under Bailey and Petravic's ownership, the company also began to expand its collaborations with artists and designers with shared design kinship and manufacturing values. A notable collaboration was with Alice Waters, founder and chef of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. The restaurant uses Heath dinnerware in the restaurant, called the Chez Panisse collection, and was the result of a collaboration with Christina Kim and Alice Waters in 2006.Amanda Gold
New owners mold revamped firm from same classic clay
San Francisco Chronicle, November 4, 2013.
In 2008, Heath opened its Los Angeles showroom and studio, its first location outside of the Bay Area. The studio was opened with artist potter Adam Silverman, who served as studio director until 2015.Nonlinear Path to Pottery/ref> Subsequent collaborations have included those with Natalie Chanin of Alabama Chanin (resulting in a line of hand-etched dinnerware at Heath, evoking the hand-stitching of Alabama Chanin linens),Alexandra Lange
Table Setting: Natalie Chanin Dishes with Heath
T Magazine November 11, 2011 page 24. and designers
House Industries
House Industries is a type foundry and design studio based in Yorklyn, Delaware. The company was created in the 1990s in Wilmington, Delaware by co-founders Andy Cruz and Rich Roat. The company is best known for its typeface creations, which have ...
(resulting in a line of ceramic house numbers featuring typefaces by Richard Neutra
Richard Joseph Neutra ( ; 8 April 1892 – 16 April 1970) was an Austrian-American architect. Living and building for most of his career in Southern California, he came to be considered a prominent and important modernist architect. His most ...
and Charles Eames
Charles Ormond Eames Jr. (June 17, 1907 – August 21, 1978) was an American designer, architect and filmmaker. In professional partnership with his wife Ray-Bernice Kaiser Eames, he made groundbreaking contributions in the fields of architect ...
, and a line of clocks featuring House Industries typeface).Rima SuqiTicking and Tocking in Playful Ceramics
New York Times, April 2, 2014. Heath has also collaborated with
Geoff McFetridge Geoffrey, Geoffroy, Geoff, etc., may refer to:
People
* Geoffrey (given name), including a list of people with the name Geoffrey or Geoffroy
* Geoffroy (surname), including a list of people with the name
* Geoffroy (musician) (born 1987), Canadia ...
,Geoff McFetridge x Heath Ceramics/ref> and Commune Design to create lines of limited edition pieces. In 2013, Heath also invited a number of artists to collaborate on a line of one-of-a-kind clocks.
/ref> In 2010, Heath opened a showroom within the San Francisco Ferry Building Marketplace. Then, recognizing the need for dedicated tile manufacturing, Heath Ceramics opened its tile factory and flagship San Francisco showroom and clay studio in 2012.Pilar Vilades
Heath Crosses the Bridge
T Magazine, June 28, 2012. At the beginning of 2014, Heath exited the wholesale business, going direct to consumers via its showrooms and through its website. In late 2015, Bailey and Petravic authored a book on designing with tile, called Tile Makes the Room, a book exploring design through tile.Carren Jao
October 17, 2015. In 2016, Heath began to move beyond its traditional focus on tableware and tile, designing a line of wallpaper,Meredith Swinehart
New from Heath Ceramics: Wallpaper from Hygge & West
Remodelista, June 23, 2016 and introducing a line of soft goods.
Awards
* 2022 AIGA Corporate Leadership Award * 2015 Award for Corporate and Institutional Achievement, National Design Awards, Cooper Hewitt Museum * 2014 SFMade, Founders Award * 2014 Made in USA Foundation Hall of Fame * 2011 Finalist, Product Design, National Design Awards, Cooper Hewitt Museum * 2009 Finalist, Corporate and Institutional Achievement, National Design Awards, Cooper Hewitt Museum * 2008 Presidential Commendation, American Institute of Architects San FranciscoSee also
*California pottery
California pottery includes industrial, commercial, and decorative pottery produced in the Northern California and Southern California regions of the U.S. state of California. Production includes brick, sewer pipe, architectural terra cotta, til ...
* Fireclay Tile, a similar architectural tile manufacturing company located in Aromas, California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
* National Tile Contractors Association
References
External links
Heath Ceramics website
{{authority control 1948 establishments in California Ceramics manufacturers of the United States Companies based in Marin County, California Manufacturing companies established in 1948 Design companies established in 1948 Art in the San Francisco Bay Area Manufacturing companies based in California Employee-owned companies of the United States