As a kid, Mark Warren, who makes up one half of Burlington, North Carolina–based ceramic studio Haand, remembers once aspiring to become a wizard. “When I was really little, we got to go to a fire house and meet the firemen, dress up in the gear and honk the horn,” recalls Warren. “And at the end of the visit, one of the firemen earnestly asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up [I think expecting me to say ‘fireman.’] I replied, ‘I want to be a wizard,’ which I kind of get to do now with conjuring porcelain pots out of the ether.”
Warren (who hasn’t outgrown his fascination with wizardry), along with longtime high school friend Chris Pence, initially launched their company in 2012. The potters, who began in a modest studio and have expanded to an old hosiery manufacturing warehouse, have accrued and hand-designed porcelain pieces ranging from dinner plates and tapas sets to pasta bowls and coffee mugs in a slew of colors from rusty burl to seafoam green-like celadon. “We wanted and iconic name that really captured what we did,” explains Warren of the meaning behind the company name. “It is an archaic Scandinavian word for ‘hand,’ and it conveys both how we do things [and it’s a little bit alien and futuristic sounding, too. ‘Hand’ is actually thought by linguists to be a part of a very, very small group of words that has been part of spoken language since humans started speaking.”
On June 15th, the ceramicists—heavily immersed in tableware in the restaurant industry for the last several years (their pieces are in 175 restaurants and counting)—will debut their first-ever collection of vessels, the Ripple Vases. “These vases are designed to be organic and have personalities when they sit on a tabletop,” says Warren. “I’d like them to feel like they were made through a natural process, like driftwood getting worn down on the beach over years at sea, or pebbles rolling around the bottom of a mountain stream. I grew up on the beach in Florida, and my friends and I would spend many hot summer days walking around on the beach and seeing what a storm had washed up. These bits of detritus changed from their journeys and exposure to the forces of time and tide.”
But, Warren professes the bulbous and shapely objets d’ art comprised of two styles in two sizes (the “Driftwood” in small and large; and the “Pebble” in small and large), didn’t happen overnight. “I have played with the vase format several times over the years, but this is the first time that I have really had the chance to dive deep and really develop a group,” explains Warren. “With Covid and the social distancing, my family has done over the past year, the pleasures of home and the simple joy of collecting flowers with my 18-month-old daughter has risen to the forefront of weekend activities. Testing these arrangements in the various shapes have given a new meaning to the term ‘work from home’, as has the chance to examine our domestic life and the objects we love to use there.”
Warren also acknowledges their new designs aren’t exactly mundane. “These vases are different from many vases out on the market,” says Warren. “They are sculptural in form, but still highly functional as vases. Depending on the angle and the light that you view these from, they change dynamically and offer surprises, I find myself seeing new silhouettes even after months of looking at these.”
What’s also just as important in their designs, is the process. “It’s unique because it has a soul and a voice,” explains Warren. “Everything about the making of the piece is taken into account as I design the piece, and our process really encourages all of the craftspeople who work here to put their own personal hand and love into the pottery during the making. It makes every piece slightly unique and different when you place them next to each other, which most manufacturers try to eliminate from the making process.”
Next up, Warren and Pence are working on new, larger format planters and have a few other tricks up their sleeves. “We have some real surprises in store,” says Warren.” There are lots of moving pieces to still figure out, but it will be really exciting.” They are also constantly dreaming up new collaborations and inventive uses for their designs. “We would love to make the first set of dishes to be used on Mars,” jokes Warren. “Or make all of the prop dishware for a film adaptation of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea series.”
