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Heath Ceramics Celebrates 70 Years of Modern Design

Owners Catherine Bailey and Robin Petravic discuss the future of the heritage brand
Image may contain Food Egg Bowl Shelf Pottery Porcelain Art Furniture Dish Meal and Saucer
Ceramics ready to be fired at the Sausalito factory of Heath Ceramics.Photo: Courtesy of Heath Ceramics

In 1944 Edith Heath, then 33, was teaching at San Francisco’s Presidio Hill School during the day and offering ceramics courses in the evenings at the once-famous California Labor School. That spring, she met Jermayne MacAgy, the acting director of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor Museum, who invited Heath to exhibit her ceramics at the museum in the fall. The exhibition opened on September 1 and ran an entire month. In the 200 pieces shown, Heath focused on tea services, salad sets, and bowls, whose repetition of shape simplified the daunting task of production. Alongside these basics were objects including vases, candleholders, square-shaped plates, a water pitcher, decanter, and beer jug with coordinating mugs.

The show was a success for the self-taught artist—both personally and professionally. In attendance was Bill Brewer, one of the buyers for San Francisco’s historic Gump’s department store. Brewer contracted with Heath to produce hand-thrown pottery for the store and set her up with a ceramics workshop, coincidentally on Clay Street in downtown San Francisco. Within two weeks she delivered her first order, and not long after, her work was being carried by Neiman Marcus, Marshall Field’s, Bullock’s and, perhaps most importantly, New York City’s America House, a retail gallery founded by Aileen Osborn Webb. It was there that Frank Lloyd Wright first spotted Heath’s pottery, which he selected as the dinnerware of choice for his roster of influential projects.

Edith Heath in the Sausalito factory.

Photo: Brian & Edith Heath Foundation/Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley

Edith, along with her husband Brian, eventually founded Heath Ceramics in 1948. Over the next 50 years, the factory would produce as many as 90 different dinnerware shapes and almost 50 glazes. By 1993, after a series of health issues, the Heaths stepped away for the most part, leaving the studio in the hands of its well-trained employees. Without Edith and Brian, however, the spirit of Heath began to diminish, and many wondered whether the business could continue, or even remain relevant. A decade later, enter industrial designers Catherine Bailey and Robin Petravic, who felt something was missing from their own design experiences. With Edith’s blessing the pair acquired the enduring brand in 2003, and while this year marks the couple’s 15th anniversary as Heath’s stewards, it’s also the iconic studio’s 70th anniversary. AD PRO sat down with Bailey and Petravic in their pied-à-terre above Heath’s San Francisco showroom and tile production facility to talk about their work, Edith’s legacy, and the future of Heath Ceramics.

Catherine Bailey and Robin Petravic, owners of Heath Ceramics.

Photo: Aya Brackett

AD PRO: When did you first encounter Heath and how did you come to acquire it?

Catherine Bailey: I had an industrial design consulting firm, so I spent a lot of time sitting behind a screen. After about eight years, the projects became less satisfying. Both Robin and I were very open to what would come next. We didn’t specifically want to start something ourselves or buy something ourselves, but we wanted to make an impact and be a part of something bigger.

Robin Petravic: I was working as a freelance product design consultant and we were already working a lot together. We’d just moved to Sausalito from the city and were, at the same time, looking for something more direct and tangible when we came across the factory. It was just this great sense of opportunity with everything still under one roof—the original equipment in the back, and the pieces in the store were so familiar and yet vintage at the same time.

Edith Heath turning a bowl.

Photo: Brian & Edith Heath Foundation/Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley

CB: Edith Heath was about 93 years old then and no longer able to manage the business. She had given control to a family friend, who by that point had put it into a trust, so we technically bought it from the trust. They had the vision of preserving it, but also have it turn the next chapter. We were totally aligned [with the trust] and there was plenty of goodwill between us to make it happen.

RP: The other thing that was important to us was that all the manufacturing was staying right there [in the Sausalito factory]. Some of the other people who were interested in buying it didn’t believe you could do all the manufacturing there, or they were more interested in the real estate.

CB: We really wanted to make sure we were keeping what was really pure about Heath, and still create that next chapter—and see how a business like that could be viable and really fit in today. Part of that was taking a look at what was really remarkable about it and what worked in the past, but realizing we couldn’t exactly keep it going the same way—it simply didn’t work anymore.

The slipcasting section of the Sausalito factory today.

Photo: Aya Brackett

AD PRO: What were some of the first changes you made?

CB: Two of the first things we didn’t actually have to discuss with each other, we just knew. One was knowing we actually had to have a product line so that there was a clear point of view, instead of just making whatever anyone wanted. We took what was really most pure and important from the past and created new colors and one new shape that was missing: the Large Mug. Edith had designed a beautiful mug (the Studio Mug) with a low-hanging handle that’s really iconic with a lot of character, but people like to drink coffee much more now than they did in 1948. It was sort of holding the line back because there wasn’t a practical mug that really connected to today.

AD PRO: What were some of the colors you introduced into Heath’s repertoire?

CB: Originally there were a lot of light-based colors—the historic colors were very earthy and on brown clay. To balance that out, we used white clay and created French Grey, Persimmon, and Mist—three colors that really redefined how Heath could look today. You can easily mix them in with the old colors. Fifteen years later we’re looking at refreshing that palette for the first time. Those colors are still really beautiful, but things feel a little different today. From my perspective, 10 to 15 years is a really nice life cycle for dinnerware colors.

Glaze minerals at the factory.

Photo: Courtesy of Heath Ceramics

AD PRO: Is anything being phased out?

CB: We have a small factory, so if we want to put something in, we need to take something out. Those will become archived colors, and they'll become more valuable and special.

AD PRO: You’ve told us that you’re working on some new colors this spring to release in the fall. What are they?

CB: The new colors we’re working on are not all named yet! There are groups of colors that, to us, feel very fresh and we think they’re going to stand the test of time. Easily for another 15 years. Sometimes colors shift slightly over time as ingredients shift, and they just don’t feel right anymore. There is one color we’re introducing that’s more significant: It’s called Rosemary. It is a dark green but it’s on a white clay so you get a lot of contrast. We pull away the glaze at the edge so that you can see back to the material—something that Edith Heath did a lot. Other people are starting to do it more now, but we’ve done it since 1948. Rosemary has a unique look because there’s a lot of contrast between the clay and the glaze.

Offerings from Heath's current line.

Photo: Jeffery Cross

AD PRO: What are some of the highlights we can expect to see for Heath’s 70th anniversary?

RP: We have flatware coming out this year that we designed with the last remaining American flatware manufacturer—it’s the first time we’ve designed Heath flatware. It’s kind of meant to pair with the original Coupe line but can actually go with anything. The company is called Sherrill Manufacturing and Liberty Tabletop and is the former Oneida factory, which was bought by some of the employees several years back after Oneida moved production overseas.

CB: These guys are amazing. It’s really the only flatware that’s been designed and produced in the U.S. in the last decade. For us, it’s really important to make that kind of connection. We have an affinity with people like that. We could have just done the design and shipped it overseas to be made, but this really touches a lot of people who put everything they had into making this work.

RP: It should debut early this summer, but we’re waiting on the knife! They’ve actually never created a new knife. In the past, they really focused on derivative, traditional designs, and they can do that really well. Now we’re coming in with something that’s modern, and what is important about the form is a little different. As with Heath, good design is important for the health of a business—to be able to live on, be relevant, and not swing back and forth based on trends.

CB: We’re also collaborating with Artek [the Helsinki-based furniture design company founded in 1935]. One cool project is with their Alvar Aalto tea cart [the Tea Trolley 900, designed in 1937]. It has these big wheels and a tile top—they’re super-collectible and crazy expensive. We’re going to design ten of these, each with a custom art-piece tile top. It’s a nice way to combine our history with their history. They also produce a classic stool [the Stool E60, designed by Alvar Aalto in 1934] for which we’re taking inspiration from our color palette, both old and new, and adding it to the seating. We’re also using our glaze work as inspiration and creating graphics to screen onto the stools.

Heath's San Francisco factory and showroom.

Photo: Courtesy of Heath Ceramics

AD PRO: At the end of the day, what is it about Heath that brings you the most joy?

CB: The studio is where I get the most satisfaction—where there is a real, true exploration in clay, and real creativity that isn’t based on market strategy. You can imagine what it must have felt like in 1948 to have been Edith and Brian Heath figuring out how to turn what they loved into a business.

RP: We’ve tried hard to maintain that original spirit while having a business that continues to thrive. We’re very clear in terms of our vision and why we do what we do. We’re making a business for our employees—there are 200 of them now! We make money so that we can continue doing more creative ventures, not the other way around.