Queen of the tabletop

“Everything I do is a direct creation of my hands,” industrial designer Eva Zeisel once proclaimed. For a ceramist who never quite mastered throwing clay on a wheel, Zeisel’s creative output is stunning. The artist has designed nearly 100,000 pieces of tableware in styles as diverse as Bauhaus, Russian Art Nouveau and organic modern. A handsome and comprehensive exhibition of her work has opened at the Craft and Folk Art Museum in L.A.

“Eva Zeisel: Extraordinary Designer at 100” includes rarely seen collections such as her 1920s Mondrian set, as well as recent collaborations with Crate & Barrel. The museum’s gift shop is selling Zeisel reissues: stemware for Nambe ($40 per glass, shown here), a collection of KleinReid porcelain and a small selection of vintage Pais salad plates and cup-and-saucer sets created in 1953 for Monmouth Stoneware. Through Dec. 30 at 5814 Wilshire Blvd., (323) 937-4230, www.cafam.org.

--David A. Keeps