I started painting on our plates during the early days of the pandemic in 2020. I started painting on plates and serving pieces that were a little wonky for one reason or another. It was a way to kill the time and make the walls feel less like they were closing in during a pretty scary time. I quietly put them up on the site, shared a few pictures, and left it at that. I never really had the sense they were selling, but when I checked in a few months later, they had all sold out. I was delighted that they had made their way into people’s homes, and hopeful they made them as happy to look at them as I did making them.

Fast forward to 2022, and we got a few press requests for samples, and I thought to myself, we may have something here. So, building off those original shapes, I worked with Matthew (my high school homeroom buddy turned Haand R+D lead) on making a decoration glaze that applies like watercolor and retains its intensity through the firing process. We developed a deep, classic Dutch blue and rich Mediterranean red.

Our Haand Painted line is really a labor of love for me. I paint each of these by hand, trying to make each one make sense with its fellows but still look completely individual. It’s time-consuming but feels good to move my brush across the clay surface, as I reflect on the long history of potters who have done the same thing over the millennia- reflecting the times they lived in, memorializing everyday life and their hopes, dreams, and loves in the most permanent of mediums- glazed pottery. 

- Mark Warren, Haand Co-Founder and Creative Director