The icon you never heard of

Edith Heath's name is unfamiliar, but her work is everywhere: sturdy, unadorned stoneware and tile that shows off the earth it came from and the hands that shaped it.

A revolt against gold rims

When Edith and her husband Brian launched the first Heath Ceramics line at Gump's in 1948, tables were set with pattern-heavy Staffordshire and gold-rimmed china. Countering the pinky-up look was the point.

She called the clay gutless

The premixed white clay imported from Europe for delicate porcelain got a one-word review from Edith. She wanted a material nobody had figured out yet, one that spoke of its region.

“I began to work with California clays that would turn out looking like something that nobody else had ever made.”

One firing, one finish

She found her clay in a pit near Sacramento and mixed it coarser and stronger. Her glazes fused to it in a single firing, so pieces left the kiln matte, scratch resistant, and earth toned.

Coupe never stopped

Her first dinnerware design is still in production, one of a handful of American products made continuously for more than 50 years, alongside Levi's 501s and Ray-Bans.

Then it almost ended

By the early 2000s the company was struggling and shopping itself to buyers. The 50-year run nearly stopped short.

New hands in 2003

Catherine Bailey and Robin Petravic bought Heath from the family trust. Their split echoed the founders': she came from industrial design at Nike, he from Stanford art plus mechanical engineering, drawn to how things get made.

A for-sale sign on a walk

They spotted the 1960 factory in their Sausalito neighborhood first, an open plan with a courtyard and cross-ventilation that was Edith's idea of an ideal workplace. Learning it still made pots pulled them in deeper.

“In our hearts we're both preservationists.”

No bankroll, so a slow dig

They arrived without investment money, fixed the roof because it was most critical, and spent years finding buried papers and objects in the building's corners. Eighteen years of repair instead of a gut renovation.

“It was a lot like an archeological dig.”

Small batch, sold direct

They pulled back from wholesale and sold online and through their own stores in Sausalito, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Integrity meant more than good clay; profits always cost people and planet something.

Not a race to the bottom

Robin learned it early, when big restaurant accounts kept grinding the discount down. Competing on price means finding a way to make more for less, forever.

“this is a race to the bottom, there's only one way this is going to end”

Products with integrity

They pay a fair wage, gave employees a stake, and hired staff dedicated to zero waste. Selling direct let them control packaging, and the L.A. store gets deliveries by van with almost none at all.

Green since Edith

The same California clay needs only one firing, at a lower temperature. Edith, shaped by the Depression, turned cast-off clay into beads and small pieces that filled the gaps between big ones in the kiln.

Color built to last a decade

Redwood, Opaque White, Sage, and Moonstone all go back to the early years, and new colors arrive slowly. A set should be collected over time, not bought by the box.

“I put a stake in the ground when designing color for dinnerware. It should last at least a decade.”

Room to take risks

At the Heath Clay Studio in San Francisco, potters and glazers experiment at the wheel on limited and one-of-a-kind work. Some of what they find travels back to the factory.

“dream, take risks, and get their hands dirty”

Partners who match

The line holds to roughly 70 percent dinnerware and 30 percent other home goods, made only with like-minded makers such as Sherrill Manufacturing in New York and Alice Waters of Chez Panisse.

From 24 to 170

Nobody was watching a quiet old pottery, which let them ask what Edith would make if she were simply doing the work she loved. Staff has grown from 24 people to 170.

Edith saw it herself

Before she died in late 2005, her caretaker brought her back to the factory the couple had just bought. She looked at the floor still running her designs and gave them the only approval that mattered.

“This is amazing, they're still making my designs.”