In the last few years, Los Angeles has been having something of a ceramics moment. Makers across the city have taken to the pottery wheel to fashion artful dishware, containers and sculptural objects. Local potters including A Question of Eagles, Mt. Washington Pottery and duo Kat and Roger have become a ubiquitous presence, with hip shops hawking their artisan wares that seamlessly blend form and function. But when it comes to fine handmade dishware, humbleceramics.com rules them all. Designed by L.A.-based Belgian artist Delphine Lippens, these minimalist plates, bowls and canisters are thrown by hand at her studio, perched in the corner of a tile factory in Vernon. With mostly neutral tones glazed on the stoneware pieces — bone, slate and matte black are common colors in her palette— Humble's creations often pair sleekly polished surfaces with earthy unfinished clay, shoring opposite textures upon each other. Lippens' works have become a favorite for food photogs of every ilk, ranging from occasional Instagrammers to professional shooters who choose Humble to grace culinary magazine covers. Using these sleek and rustic pieces as a frame for fine food, Lippens says, “Each plate becomes a canvas for what is placed upon it.” Humble is focusing on wholesale to restaurants at the moment, but the one-off experiments and delightfully funky wabi-sabi goods — named after the Japanese philosophy of finding beauty in imperfections — find their way to local stores such as Individual Medley in Atwater Village, General Store in Venice and Farmshop in Brentwood.

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