Expressions of the Earth

When you walk into Cedar & Hyde Home it can be hard to know which beautiful item to focus on, but more often than not, we find one designer’s work tends to catch the eye first. The ceramic art of MQuan, with its bright colors, bold designs and beautiful execution, elicits a familiar admiration from nearly everyone who comes through our doors. 

Michele Quan draws on years of inspiration and experience to design her creations in her NY studio, along with the help of a small team of talented and dedicated craftspeople. No stranger to beautiful, intentional adornment, Quan was a founding member - the “Me” - of fine jewelry studio Me & Ro, a longtime favorite of ours, before shifting her focus to ceramics full time in 2005. 

Each MQuan piece nods to motifs and ideas that Quan returns to again and again: impermanence and interconnectedness, celestial bodies, the eye, spirals, bones, and visual symbols of Eastern iconography. Cycles of life and death, as well as other themes inspired by the natural world, are as integral to her work as the clay itself - a custom East Coast stoneware she has used since day one to form her pieces. This unique recipe comes together by hand in the MQuan studio, a physical tribute to the mysteries and awe of the world around us. 

Each piece is a handmade, hand painted, one-of-a-kind work of art that adds a perfect accent wherever you need one, from a eye-shaped pop of warm color on a shelf, to a painted dish that blends form and function, to a hand-formed hanging bell, to a wall-sized curtain of organic clay shapes that bring to mind the phases of the moon. 

Explore some of our favorite MQuan pieces either in store or online - with a wide range in stock, we always love to hear which pieces speak to different people, and are happy to share our favorites too!