When Hanna Dausch was in middle school, she had a lightbulb moment. “I was always very artistic as a little kid—art class was always my best subject,” she tells Business of Home. “I woke up one day, and it just clicked, like, ‘Wait, this is my favorite subject. I love doing this. OK, I’m just going to do this forever.’” Dausch left her hometown of Pittsburgh and headed to Chicago to attend Loyola University, but then with the help of her professors who aided in building up her portfolio, transferred to The Art Institute of Chicago for a more robust program.
There, she studied ceramics and dabbled in sculpture and woodworking, learning how to use a lathe (the tool her woodturner grandfather used). “I became absolutely obsessed with it, and I was turning pieces on the lathe constantly because no one ever used [it],” she says. “It’s kind of a niche tool: All woodworkers know what it is, but all woodworkers don’t use it.” After graduating, she worked as a historic carpenter and then a finish carpenter before deciding to move back to Pittsburgh.
A brief stint working for a furniture maker—and having two entrepreneur parents—inspired her to open her own studio, and in 2019, Han Studio came to be. She started with smaller items like cutting boards and candleholders before eventually graduating to furniture with her debut collection last year, which she continues to develop. “My background is in sculpture, not in furniture making,” says Dausch. “I think that makes my work very unique, because it walks the line of furniture and sculpture, and I love that idea. It allows my customers to decide what they want my pieces to be. Personally, when I buy something for my house, I don’t want to be told exactly how it needs to be [used]. I think my work allows customers to [use the items as they like].”
Unlike other makers, Dausch doesn’t begin with a sketch. “With a lot of my work, I put a piece on the lathe, and I just start turning it. Through turning it, I’ll come up with the design as I go,” she says. “Or maybe I have a design in my head and I’m making it, and something goes wrong, and I’m like, ‘OK, well, I messed up that design. What can I make out of this piece now?’ I come up with a lot on the spot.” She lets mistakes and imperfections drive some of her work, making her adaptable to new ideas and creations. All of her small pieces (like the vases and table lamps) are crafted with the lathe, and the majority of her larger furniture pieces incorporate lathed details (think rounded coffee table legs).
Dausch loves using wood because it varies piece by piece, and she’s not entirely sure how it will turn out until it’s done. “I could have five of the exact same piece, but out of those five, I will have a favorite based on what the wood grain looks like,” she says. “You don’t really know fully what the grain looks like until it is sanded and has finish on it, so it’s always a surprise in the end, which is really exciting and rewarding. It’s kind of like opening a present on Christmas morning.” One of her favorites is the Alba vase, which is crafted on the lathe, then chiseled by hand, and features a spherical shape with a flared mouth. “It’s a very simple design, but the detail of carving makes it really intricate,” she explains. She recently piggybacked on that design to craft a wall mirror.
Han Studio is now six years strong, but Dausch hopes to maintain a small footprint. “I never want to be huge—I do not want 20 employees,” she says. “I want at most maybe two or three employees ever. I want to stay very small, so that my hands can be on everything that comes in and out of my shop.”
