The City of Burlington and Haand Ceramics announce a hand-painted line of commemorative plates celebrating the Burlington Carousel Festival!

 Burlington’s Historic, hand carved Dentzel Carousel is treasured by our small community. Brought to City Park in 1948, the beauty and craftsmanship of the rideable work of art has created special memories for generations of residents (including me) and is very much a part of the city’s identity.  

Another important part of Burlington’s identity was manufacturing (historically, textiles and hosiery), and while the life sciences industry may employ more residents these days, the remaining factory buildings throughout town are a constant reminder of that history. 

Haand Ceramics is located in an old textile mill near Burlington’s downtown at the corner of Tucker and Maple Streets. The mill was originally the Willowbrook Hosiery Mill and is an ideal location for the pottery store and studio.

Haand was started in 2012 by Mark Warren and Chris Pence, friends who met in high school in Jacksonville, Florida. Mark had recently finished a two-year fellowship at Penland School of Craft in Bakersville, North Carolina in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Chris had studied business and accounting in graduate school and left his role as a corporate accountant to start Haand, which was originally run out of a decrepit farmhouse with no potable water and mercurial electricity outside of Durham. As the business grew, they moved operations to a warehouse in Eli Whitney and in 2017, Mark and Chris moved the business to the hosiery mill on Tucker Street.

Today, they employ a team of 30 and supply pottery to restaurants and hotels worldwide. They sell locally from a showroom in the mill and through their website to homes all over the United States.

Haand makes over 75,000 pieces of handmade pottery per year in their small workshop! And…I’m excited to announce a new partnership between the City of Burlington and HAAND. Haand is making a commemorative dessert plate featuring an animal from the Dentzel Carousel’s menagerie in celebration of the 32nd Annual
Carousel Festival. This year the featured animal is the tiger and they plan to feature a different carousel animal each year for future Carousel Festivals. It’s a perfect marriage of the Carousel’s beautiful craftsmanship with the important role of manufacturing in Burlington.  

 “To have a publicly funded space like Burlington City Park is a rare and true gift to Alamance County. I know firsthand that this park is a perfect destination where I can bring my kid and we feel part of the local community.” stated Mark Warren.  “The Carousel itself is a work of art and craftsmanship, something to be appreciated on its own. I chose the tiger for our first commemorative plate because I’ve always found a childlike enjoyment in painting circus animals.” 

Visitors to the Carousel Festival can enter a raffle to win a set of two of this year’s hand-painted porcelain plates by filling out a survey about ways to improve the Carousel Festival for future years.

 A limited edition run of the hand-painted plates will be available for purchase at Haand’s showroom at 413 Tucker Street, or at  www.haand.us starting Friday, May 5th. Haand’s showroom is open Monday – Friday from 11am – 4pm, and Saturday from 12pm – 4pm. You can also visit them for a tour as part of Downtown Burlington’s Fourth Friday Art Walks on the Fourth Friday of each month, from 5:30 – 9:00 pm.  If you are local, this is a great experience and you’ll definitely leave with a piece of pottery…or 2!

Small to mid-size companies like Haand represent the majority of the Burlington’s firms and jobs and are truly the backbone of Burlington’s business community.  HAAND’S business continues to grow and one of their newest collaborations includes a beautiful line of hand-blown glassware with Christopher Kerr-Ayer, and a collection of modern heirlooms curated by Vivian Howard, a North Carolinian chef and hospitality expert.   

 The 32nd Annual Burlington Carousel Festival will be held at Burlington City Park on Saturday, May 6 and Sunday from 10am-6pm with an evening concert featuring Crawford & Power and Ryan Perry from 6pm – 10pm and on Sunday, May 7 from noon-5pm. The Carousel Festival features live music and performances, an artisan market, food trucks and food vendors, a beer garden, an action-packed Kids Zone and free rides on the newly restored Carousel and other amusement rides that call City Park home. More information here!

To download the video of the hand painting process, more images of Haand ceramics, and their manufacturing process, as well as higher resolution images of the the tiger from Burlington’s Carousel, go to this link: https://we.tl/t-XNguMsNDdt.

I hope to see you there!