About

About Uno+Ichi

Hello! Hana here. I’m the owner, designer and ceramicist behind Uno+Ichi. I make all the ceramics by hand behind my grandmother’s house in West Adams, Los Angeles.

I started Uno+Ichi with my friend Joanna in 2015. We chose the name Uno+Ichi for its literal meaning of two people working together on something: “one plus one”— uno as in the Spanish word for “one,” and ichi as in the Japanese word for “one”. Joanna and I started Uno+Ichi in the beginning purely out of a need to make something. I had just broken away from a career path in education to pursue my art and quickly found myself a little lost and in a somewhat self-deprecative state. Joanna’s sister had recently past away when Uno+Ichi began, and for her it was about creating and living life after experiencing the opposite of that — loss. For both of us, Uno+Ichi was about relearning courage when you know something will take its twists and turns and not fall according to how it is expected, but finding excitement in that and taking the leap of faith.

Joanna left Uno+Ichi in February of 2018 and inevitably the work and the way each piece is made has changed. As I worked to create new designs for Uno+Ichi on my own I found that I loved throwing pieces on the wheel first and then altering them by hand afterwards. I would throw the near-perfect form on the wheel, and then play with hitting it with a stick, rolling it on the table, or forming a shape with my hands. I loved the unpredictability of it and the individuality each imperfection brought to the piece. This way of working birthed a new meaning of Uno+Ichi for me. Uno+Ichi began to refer to the process and approach I had to making. Uno began to represent the first step in creating form on the wheel– sturdy and precise– and ichi came to represent the undoing of that perfection–unpredictable and flawed.

I try to remember this concept, Uno+Ichi, in all aspects of my life. I find myself often trying to plan things out so there is a solid structure, sturdy and invulnerable. But things happen in life that are unpredictable and inevitably reshape things. I try to remember to embrace the imperfections and unexpected curves. Seeing the imperfections as beautiful in each ceramic piece helps me to see this same beauty in life.

Thank you for finding this page and reading a little bit about the story behind Uno+Ichi : )

What's In A Symbol

Inspired by seal script, Uno+Ichi’s logo was built on Hana and Joanna's interest in linguistics and mark-making. The logo is a personified version of the ancient Chinese character for “和,” which can mean “and” and “harmonious.”