In 2000, Zeisel visited the now-privatized Lomonosov Porcelain Factory, where she had once rationalized tableware for the Stalinist state. Over the next several years, she worked with Lomonosov's talented young model-maker, Georgii Bogdevich, to create molds for a new tea service in delicate bone china.

Released last year, the exquisite, expensive ($4,950 for a 21-piece set) service is among Zeisel's most beautiful work. Nearly translucent, the cups recall elegant calla lilies, while the teapot and creamer lids look like belly buttons—a favorite Zeisel motif—or splashes of milk. Elegance and playfulness, nature and artifice are in harmony.

In a new era, the Lomonosov set exemplifies the ideals she has maintained throughout her life. Designers, she says, should not be ashamed of surface beauty. The surface is, after all, what we see and touch and how we know an object.

This latest in a long line of tea sets demonstrates another Zeisel belief: that there is no one best way to solve a design problem. "The designer must understand," she wrote, "that form does not follow function, nor does form follow a production process. For every use and for every production process there are innumerable equally attractive possibilities." Exploring them can fill a very long life.