This Ceramic Artist Started At The Table, Now She's Lighting Up Rooms

Forbes

20-06-2025

Erin Hupp's tabletop lamp was inspired by an egg cup.
Kelly Puleio
Erin Hupp was inspired by her work with Michelin-star chefs to create a new lighting collection.
Kristen Loken
Ceramic artist Erin Hupp has created custom tableware for chefs at renowned restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond including Californios, Nightbird, Sons and Daughters, and Pasta Bar.
Now, she's applying her reverence for clay to a new venture: a lighting collection called Solum, Latin for 'of the earth.'
Hupp wanted to expand her practice into another realm, while continuing her goal of creating custom art objects that are also functional. Much like she works with chefs, she's now also collaboration with interior designers to create the perfect mood and ambience for a room.
'Working alongside other creatives allows me to immerse myself in their vision and reinterpret it through my own artistic lens,' Hupp says. 'There's a unique synergy that emerges when two creative perspectives come together, resulting in something truly special.'
Erin Hupp's pendant lamps are inspired by bowls she created for restaurants.
Kelly Puleio
Hupp first gained attention for her collaborations with restaurants, where she created handmade ceramics that enhanced the look and feel of the dining experience.
'My ceramics provide the architecture for the chef's menu and how it will exist within the restaurant space,' she told me in 2022.
That same sense of storytelling and collaboration drives Solum, which includes table lamps, pendant lamps, and sconces—each made to order and customizable.
'Lighting requires specific parameters—size nuts, bolts, shrinkage rates. Art is a lot of math, but those constraints spark creativity and ingenuity. It's the same as when a chef asks me to design a plate with very specific dimensions and functionality. I love the problem solving.'
She draws inspiration from everyday objects as well as previous restaurant collaborations. For example, one of her porcelain table lamps is inspired by an egg cup.
'There's something incredibly charming and sweet about a porcelain vessel used to serve French-style soft boiled eggs, where the top of the shell is delicately removed like a hat. I wanted to translate that sense of delicacy and design work into lighting.'
Erin Hupp's tabletop lamp was inspired by an egg cup.
Kelly Puleio
Similarly, her pendant lamp is inspired by a simple bowl, and the wall sconce is inspired by a sauce pourer she created for Pasta Bar in Los Angeles, and the wall light echoes a caviar dish she created in collaboration with The Caviar Company.
'By replacing the caviar with a beautiful Tala porcelain light bulb the form takes on a completely new feel and purpose.'
Erin Hupp's wall sconce was inspired by a sauce pourer she created for a restaurant.
Kristen Loken
More than decor, Hupp views lighting as an intimate part of daily life—an object you interact with emotionally.
'Artful pieces in your home inspire you to be more connected and present in your day-to-day living,' she says.
In a world of mass production, a personal connection is part of what makes a hand-made lighting fixture special and investment worthy.
'They tell a story in your home,' Hupp says. 'Storytelling, intention, and the hands that make it—that's what gives art its soul.'
Hupp's interiors work also includes a collection of vases and mirrors.
Erin Hupp designed and created bespoke tableware for San Francisco brunch restaurant Hilda & Jesse.
Adahlia Cole
The lighting launch does not mean she plans to give up creating dinnerware.
'My art practice starts with—and will always include—my collaborations with chefs for restaurants,' she says. 'It's about understanding their vision for color, texture, and the atmosphere they want to create. When we collaboration we're speaking the same language through different mediums.'
Her latest restaurant project is with Chef Philip Tessier, who's launching Understudy, a culinary destination in Napa featuring a patisserie, butcher, teaching kitchen, and a culinary museum. Hupp's miniature cake stands and ceramic pedestals will be featured at the patisserie counter, supporting the creations of master pastry chef Frank Vollkommer.
Hupp first experimented with jewelry design via a collaboration with San Francisco's Fiat Lux, and she's planning a capsule collection with San Francisco brand Goldstories. The pieces are inspired by her Fold Texture Plate, which was originally part of a two-piece caviar server created for The Caviar Co. She's reimagining it as a statement ring, necklace, and earring set.
'It's thrilling to see something I created in clay become wearable,' she says.
Solum pieces are primarily available to interior designers, but she is open to commissions outside of the trade as her schedule allows.