For over 40 years, his ceramic studio has produced a full spectrum of architectural ceramics, pottery and tile in the arts and crafts and classical styles.
A native Californian, his work embodies the subtle colors of beach stones, sandy bluffs, foggy mornings, luminous skies and indigenous plants.
Inspired by historic Japanese ceramics and long departed California companies such as Ernest Batchelder and Claycraft, California artist Laird Plumleigh has created a unique and beautiful style all how own.
More than mere reproductions, each design is created and molded by Plumleigh and glazed in his own special formulations at his coastal San Diego studio creating artful designs that transcend into a contemporary aesthetic while maintaining timeless traditions.
Drawing from the natural world that surrounds him Laird has created a remarkable body of work.
About Laird Plumleigh
The ceramics of Laird Plumleigh Studios grace the homes of individuals throughout the United States and include installations in such luminaries homes as Mel Gibson and Barbara Streisand. His signature has been stamped on the face of San Diego with striking fountains in Balboa Park and the University of San Diego. He has collaborated with Studio Sofield in New York on installations in Gunnison Colorado and for the Kohler family in Chicago.
His work has been featured in such books and magazines as “California Romantica”, “Handmade Tile”, “Craftsman Style”, “Arts and Crafts Homes”, “W”, “San Diego Home and Garden”, and "Sunset Magazine".
Ernest A. Batchelder (1875–1957) was an artist and educator who made Southern California his home in the early 20th century. He is famous as a maker of art tiles.
Batchelder came to Pasadena, California, in the early 1900s to teach, and became director of the art department at Throop Polytechnic Institute, the predecessor of the California Institute of Technology.
His life took a turn in 1909 when, behind his house overlooking the Arroyo Seco, he built a kiln and entered the business of creating hand-crafted art tiles. The tiles were hugely popular, and by the 1920s, Batchelder’s tiles could be found in homes and buildings across the United States. Batchelder’s prominence in Southern California's art community included his involvement in the founding of the Pasadena Art Institute and his membership in the Pasadena Society of Artists.
The Batchelder House built in Pasadena, California, in the early 1900s, and where he set up his first kiln, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The current resident, Dr. Robert Winter, wrote the definitive Batchelder history, Batchelder Tilemaker (Balcony Press, 1999, 112 pp, ISBN 1-890449-03-2). Although the house is not open to the public, some Batchelder tiles, stamped with heraldic animals and figures, may be found on the walkway in front of the dwelling.
Batchelder House
The Batchelder House is a historic home built in 1910 and located at 626 South Arroyo Boulevard in Pasadena, California. An important center of Pasadena cultural life in its day, the home was designed and built by Ernest A. Batchelder, a prominent leader of the Arts and Crafts Movement, and his wife, Alice Coleman, an accomplished musician. Batchelder's first craft shop was located in the structure, where decorative tiles were made for Greene and Greene, the Heineman Brothers, and other noted local architects of the era.
