Hand Pottery is creating ceramics and community in central NC
BY KATY SHERO
The art of hosting a good dinner party goes further than the food; it’s how the table is set. The table setting establishes the ambiance and mood for the occasion, and memorable, eclectic tableware pieces open doors to conversation and connection: key commodities Mark Warren aspires to evoke in every piece of pottery that’s crafted at Haand. “There’s a presence to a handmade thing that people connect with,” Warren says.
Warren is the co-owner of Haand, a porcelain pottery business housed in a 13,000-square-foot former hosiery mill in downtown Burlington. Warren, along with his business partner Chris Pence, have been crafting, mastering, and sharing their art since 2012. You could say Warren and Pence know pottery like the back of their hand.
But for Warren, falling into pottery was accidental. He was initially interested in furniture design and metalworking, and only took a class in ceramics at the Penland School of Craft to gain the translatable skill of moldmaking for metalworking. “I kind of just started doing ceramics in this class, and it was the first thing I’d ever done that people were like, ‘Hey, can I buy that from you?’” Warren says. He jokes, “Perhaps they didn’t have good taste or perhaps I didn’t, but people actually wanted to buy this.”
He says he realized how fulfilled this made him and knew he had to pursue his newfound passion. He had a vision—and so did Pence, a former accountant. Together, the Jacksonville natives and high school friends paired their creativity with entrepreneurship to form Haand. “We were talking about it, and it just sort of clicked,” Warren says.
However, the road wasn’t always smooth. Haand’s roots started in a Durham “decrepit farmhouse with no potable water and mercurial electricity,” and putting in overtime at gift shows and craft fairs to make sales.
Then, a breakthrough: Ashley Christensen’s Death & Taxes restaurant in Raleigh.
“That was a really big order, and then we started doing more restaurant orders, and that was sort of our bread and butter for 5 years,” Warren says. “You think about it—they need like 1,000 plates. That’s a week of work, and then you add a couple of other restaurants in, and it adds up.”
Today, Haand has worked with more than 175 restaurants—locally, nationally, and internationally—and that number continues to grow. You may have even crossed paths with their pieces, as they can be found in many beloved establishments around the Triangle, including Peregrine and Brodeto.
Peregrine co-owner and designer Patrick Shanahan says all of the restaurant’s dinnerware is from Haand, and they love supporting a local business whose aesthetic “speaks a similar language to that of the restaurant … embracing the handmade, the wabi-sabi, the unique and daring.”
“Customers often ask where our plateware was made or we catch them tipping the plates to catch a glimpse of the maker’s mark, and we love seeing their surprised look when they realize they’re made in North Carolina,” Shanahan adds.
Chef Scott Crawford, owner of Brodeto, seconds this. “Customers often comment on the beauty and uniqueness of our plateware,” he says. “The Haand pieces we have are organic and neutral in colors, like vanilla bean and terracotta, to match our design aesthetic.” He also emphasizes how important it is that he, as a small business owner, supports other small businesses and local craftsmen who are “committed to quality and relationship-based service.”
“They were eager to make custom pieces to complement our specific concept. That willingness to create something new for us makes me especially proud to support them,” he says.
Warren agrees that Haand’s commitment to quality, detail, and sustainable practices make them stand out, but his 20-plus employees are also an ingredient in their success. “We’ve had a lot of people who have worked with us for quite a while,” he says. “Being that safe place for our employees, and watching them grow and be with us, and sweating their butt off in July and still being happy to be doing this … it’s rewarding.”
Equally rewarding, he says, is having an outlet to execute ideas and watch them flourish into life. “For me, this is pathological. If I wasn’t doing this here, I’d be doing it at home and annoying my wife,” he says with a laugh.
There are a lot of exciting plans in store for Haand later this year, including a new tableware line, more shapes, and glassblowing. Warren says it’s an exciting time as there’s a renewed interest in local and authentic goods.
“If a person made it, you can tell someone really cared about it,” he says. “It’s easier to be creative now with computer-generated creativity like AI, so by not doing that, there’s even more of an emphasis to have something that someone’s labored over.”
