Last year, when Heath Ceramics owners Cathy Bailey and Robin Petravic took the train from New York to California with their three-year-old baby, they brought along two of the enduring Sausalito company’s plates and a bowl. “It’s so much nicer than eating with that plastic stuff,” Bailey says. Though the glazed-ceramic pieces were heavy, the couple ended that epic journey convinced that other eaters on the go would benefit from a portable set of tableware.
For the ideal carrier, Bailey turned to Sherry Stein, a Santa Fe–based industrial designer with whom she had worked at Nike in the early 1990s. Together they created the limited-run Picnic Set, a ruggedly elegant canvas-and-suede carrier—available in persimmon or olive—with a removable caddy that protects two matching sets of Heath plates, bowls, and cups nestled within. For Bailey, choosing to work with Stein was as natural as deciding to bring along her favorite snack, homemade applesauce. “Her materials have a ton of integrity,” she says. “The fabric breaks in in a fantastic way so that it gets better over time.”
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