Ceramicist Edith Heath and her husband, Brian Heath, made many weekend trips to different California locales in search of the perfect clay for her pottery.
But it was the artisan community of Sausalito that captured the couple’s imagination, and in 1946 they put down roots in the waterfront city. Prior to that, the Heaths lived in San Francisco, where Edith Heath made dinnerware for Gump’s after a buyer discovered her ceramics at a 1944 Legion of Honor Museum exhibit. It wasn’t long before other retailers came calling for her work.
The Heaths opened a studio in downtown Sausalito. Subsequently, the couple purchased a barge, the Dorothea, docking her at a Sausalito shipyard where they converted her into a unique home. They then lived and worked in the quaint city on Richardson Bay.
A game changer for the couple soon happened—they replaced the potter’s wheel with jigger machines that used molds to create Edith Heath’s simple yet elegant tableware, substantially increasing production. She did not hesitate to make her art with machines.
In 1948, the husband-and-wife team founded Heath Ceramics to keep up with retail demand. Edith Heath served as the driving creative force behind the company, constantly testing materials, using chemistry to perfect her clay and glazes, and coming up with new designs. Brian Heath managed the business side. Although the following year the Heaths floated the Dorothea to Tiburon, they kept their growing business in Sausalito.
Heath Ceramics eventually needed to expand beyond the capacity of the downtown studio space. The duo purchased property on Gate 5 Road, in the heart of Marinship on the north end of Sausalito, to build a factory. Edith Heath worked with two influential architects of the time, Marquis and Stoller, on the design of the mid-century modern facility. Centered around a courtyard, in true Heath style, the building combines minimalist form with function. It was constructed in 1959, with a store added in the late 1960s.
Also in the 1960s, the company added architectural ceramic tiles to their line of products. The tiles were found on the inside and outside of buildings across the country, including Neiman Marcus in Dallas, Pasadena’s Norman Simon Museum and the Ford Foundation building in New York, according to a 1971 article in the Sausalito Marin Scope.
The tile installations brought new attention to Edith Heath. In 1971, she was awarded the prestigious Industrial Arts Medal from the American Institute of Architects, the first non-architect to receive the honor.
For more than five decades, through economic peaks and valleys, the Heaths owned and operated the renowned ceramics company. Brian Heath died in 2001, and Edith Heath in 2005. However, two years before her death, Edith Heath sold Heath Ceramics to Catherine Bailey and Robin Petravic. It seemed like an opportune passing of the mantle, with Bailey and Petravic also a husband-and-wife team making their home in Sausalito.
After 78 years, the business is thriving, still producing the acclaimed dinnerware in the Sausalito factory using the same methods as the Heaths. Bailey attributes the company’s longevity to Edith and Brian Heath’s complementary strengths.
“Edith’s aesthetic sensibility, material curiosity and perceptive design instincts produced original, functional products rooted in place,” Bailey said. “Brian brought business acumen and mechanical know-how to actually make those products at scale. Owning their factory reduced financial pressure as culture and markets shifted, allowing them to persevere for decades.”
The foundation of Edith Heath’s work guides the company today, Bailey added. Some examples include the simplicity of her designs, employing glaze as a surface and structure, and using ceramics for both architectural tile and tableware.
Yet Bailey and Petravic have made changes to revitalize the enterprise. In 2012, Heath Ceramics opened a 60,000 square foot facility in San Francisco’s Mission District that houses the design studios and tile factory. The company also has showrooms in the San Francisco Ferry building, Los Angeles and Austin.
The Sausalito factory and showroom remain an integral part of the operation, with all the dinnerware produced there. Unfortunately, king tides and storm surges cause flooding at the bayside property. January brought significant floodwater to the parking lot, and it reached up the sides of the building. Despite the recurring issue, Heath Ceramics remains in Marinship.
“The Gate 5 facility is our roots and is a living part of our identity,” Bailey said. “That said, rising sea levels and the building’s siting create real long‐term risks. Expanding to San Francisco is part of our strategy to reduce the vulnerability of having everything concentrated in a flood‐prone site.”
A guided tour of the Sausalito factory provides an up-close look at the materials and production process, from the 600-pound bags of dry clay sourced from a Lincoln, California quarry to glaze experiments and kilns firing at 2000 degrees. I took a tour along with a small group of excited Floridians, each person a Heath enthusiast.
“As you walk through the factory, you’ll notice everything is built on a human scale, not machine scale,” tour guide Marissa Schow said. “Edith really wanted the machine to be an extension of the artist’s arm.”
In the clay-making room, the dry material from the quarry is mixed with water and processed to form giant logs of dough-like clay. From there, the clay for each piece is placed in a mold, giving the product its shape. While the stoneware is not hand-thrown, interestingly, all mug handles are attached by hand.
Next up is trimming, followed by the glazing process. Seasoned craftspeople spray the glaze on each piece. Master glazer Winnie Crittenden, who has worked at Heath Ceramics for 51 years, formulates the signature glazes, often experimenting on small bud vases.
Pieces are then fired in one of the factory’s six gas-powered kilns. Finally, products go to quality control to ensure that they meet Heath Ceramics’ precise standards. Seconds are sold at a discount in the store.
The factory’s 40 employees produce 800-900 pieces of dinnerware a day, Schow said. No longer sold through retail stores, Heath Ceramics’ products can only be bought in the company’s four showrooms or through its website.
Schow, a ceramicist, says that Heath Ceramics’ products stand the test of time and have become family heirlooms. While giving tours, she has met people who have had their dinnerware for decades, with one person owning a collection for 70 years.
While much has stayed the same at Heath Ceramics, like the classic Coupe plate which has been in production since the 1940s, Bailey and Petravic continue to propel the company forward. In 2023, Heath Ceramics became a Certified B Corporation, a for-profit business that meets verified social, environmental and governance standards.
“When Robin and I took over, the key was adapting the positive and unique things about the products, but with an openness to expanding and curating them,” Bailey said. “We kept design and production under one roof, a rare ambition that reinforced Heath’s uniqueness, and paired that with a new business model and evolved communications and retail strategies. We have remained committed to making our products in the Bay Area, and investing in our factories, our highly skilled team and our community.”
Visit Heath Ceramics’ Sausalito factory and showroom at 400 Gate 5 Rd. For more information, go to heathceramics.com.
