A lifetime of good design and sensual style

NEW YORK —

She finished her piece of pound cake, brought her hands up over the small tea table in her living room and said gently: "Can you see this?"

She then drew a vase in the air, moving her hands in and out, tracing its curves.

At 98 years old, with a voice that has softened to a whisper and "sight" achieved largely through her hands, Eva Zeisel continues to delight and amaze her fans and the larger world of design.

She's still working — still designing new products and still championing the reissue of some of her classic, older works that have fallen out of production over the years.

"I don't like the word 'still,' " Zeisel said, getting a tad serious in between sips of tea, served from a teapot of her design. "The slogan is 'the playful search for beauty' ... And it's continuing."

Those who follow design — or at least see a Crate & Barrel advertisement every now and then — need little introduction to the formidable Eva Zeisel, who will receive a Lifetime Achievement award this fall from the Smithsonian Institution's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in Manhattan weeks before she turns 99.

Finding Zeisel

Pieces designed by Eva Zeisel can sometimes be found in shops specializing in mid-century pottery and design. However, if you want to buy new, here are a few resources:

Classic Century dinnerware: At Crate & Barrel stores or www.crateandbarrel.com. A five-piece place setting costs $62.95; a 20-piece set is $236.95.

Talisman desk pen: Visit www.acmestudio.com for stores or to order online. Price: $131.

Eva pillow stack: The three-piece stack of vases is $250. Visit www.kleinreid.com for a list of stores or to purchase online.

Along with Russel Wright and Ben Seibel, Zeisel is one of the great tableware designers of the 20th century — although her repertoire also extends to furniture and other home products.

But her main media: everyday dishes and fancy porcelain; dinner plates; bowls; platters; glassware; salt and pepper shakers; vases; candlesticks.

Her message: Let there be beauty in everyday objects and let it be accessible to lots of people.

Zeisel's style: modern but soft. Curves — sometimes extravagant ones — are her signature.

"It is more generous to make something round than something completely rigid," said the Hungarian-born Zeisel, noting that soft shapes feel better in the hands. "When I design something, I think of it as a gift to somebody else."

Zeisel likes her gifts to be playful, too. Thus, her motto and mantra, "the playful search for beauty."

The return of a classic

In the works: a new collection of Eva Zeisel glassware — water, wine and champagne glasses — for Nambe of Santa Fe. It will launch this fall.

KleinReid, a porcelain-maker in Brooklyn that carries Zeisel's pillow stack vases, recently unveiled Eva Zeisel's trio of crystal vases, now done in a gold-colored crystal.

And there is "interest" in resurrecting her elegant Museum china, also from the '40s — provided the original molds can be found.

This follows a dazzling relaunch earlier this year of one of Zeisel's most beautiful dinnerware designs: her Classic Century earthenware from the 1950s.

The original molds were unearthed in the basement of Hall China Co. in Ohio. And Zeisel and Royal Stafford of England collaborated on the reissue. Selling it exclusively in the United States is Crate & Barrel.

There's more.

A new desk pen, watch, cuff links, card case and earrings. Zeisel designed them for Acme Studio, a Hawaii-based company that specializes in designer writing tools and accessories.

"A little fatter, thinner"

So how does a woman pushing 100 do it?

Zeisel simply smiles.

"She's amazing," said Olivia Barry, Zeisel's 31-year-old part-time design assistant in a phone interview.

"I'm just sort of her hands, getting it down, the hard line," Barry explained.

Zeisel will draw something in the air, "almost like she's conducting in the air," Barry said. And then Zeisel will put it down on paper in a sketch, using a thick black Sharpie.

"We sit side-by-side on the couch and pass the pad and Sharpie back and forth" sometimes 11 or 12 times, Barry said, "with me tracing over her drawing, her revising it, me revising that. I just basically do a cleaner version and she perfects It — the curve."

There is no small talk, Barry said. Zeisel is "problem solving."

"She will say things like 'Make it a little fatter.' 'Give it a little belly.' 'Make it more elegant.' 'Make it a little thinner,' " Barry said. "She is just extraordinary." Occasionally, Barry will take Zeisel's sketch and cut it out of construction paper "so she can run her hand over it," Barry said. "She will even pretend to drink out of the paper glass" if it's a glass she's working on.

None of this enthusiasm surprises those who know Zeisel — who rarely spends evenings alone and prefers to conduct business meetings over a glass of white wine.