Legendary designer and ceramicist Eva Zeisel passed away on the eve of 2012 at the age of 105. Even as the oldest living industrial designer she still continued to produce work—as this video beautifully captures—right up to the end of her life. 

To say her work has been a part of my life is an understatement. My wife, who studied ceramics for her undergraduate degree, has been a collector of Eva’s work for years, so we have many of her pieces in our home. The morning coffee ritual of making a “slow” cup of coffee—boiling water and pouring through a Chemex—is always punctuated at the end when I lift the lid for the Town & Country sugar bowl for my wife’s coffee (I take it black, sorry Eva). I have interacted with her work every day for years.

I had the opportunity to see Eva speak at a design conference at RISD in the late 90s as a student, which I remember being a special moment. Her beautiful mastery of form and elegant understanding of design for the home was obviously inspiring, but perhaps equally inspiring was the fact that her body of work continued well past ‘retirement’ age. As a student, one is usually just focused on getting started in the design world—you’re never considering what your relationship will be with design 75 years later. It was obvious that design was more than just a profession for Eva Zeisel—it was truly a lifelong passion.