Ruth Hyndman is a British-born, Marin-based ceramicist who branched out in the late 90's to develop a line of ceramic items for the home.
Most of her pieces, which include lamps, vases, and tableware, have a distinctly mid-century vibe (think
Henry Moore), but influences as far ranging as Art Nouveau and Minimalism crop up in her sophisticated forms.
Hyndman hand builds her prototypes using coils and then slip casts the forms to produce them in series. She uses white clay and leaves some pieces unglazed or partially unglazed, but most are handpainted in a subtle palette that highlights her shapes: celadon, grays, pale whites, and neutrals. When brighter glazes show up they are used as a design element, as with the playfully-colored linings of the dishwasher- and microwave-safe "Hefty" dinnerware.
The earthy colors of the vases above and the serving platter, lamp, and wall sculpture below are more typical.
Although Hyndeman also works by commission, she has started to sell her wares through her site, making this post into a store write-up rather than a designer profile.
Prices range from $20 for her smallest items (tea light cubes) to $553 for one of her sculptural lamps.
The wall relief sculptures are hand-made and priced accordingly (this one is $2,877). They remind us a bit of
Inhabit's paper Wall Flats -- the built-to-last version.
Visit Hyndeman's site here.
Those bowls look pretty tasty.