Daniel’s Second Chance

Daniel doesn’t hide that his life took some wrong turns. What he wanted, more than anything, was an honest job and a clean slate — and he found that both were hard to come by for someone with his history. Most employers stopped reading his application at the gaps.

We don’t ask people about their past; we ask whether they’re willing to learn. Daniel was. He threw himself into the work with the energy of someone who had been waiting a long time to be useful, and he turned out to have a real feel for hand-building larger forms — planters, big bowls, the pieces that need confidence.

“This place didn’t care where I’d been,” he says. “It cared what I could become.” Today Daniel is one of our most reliable makers, and a quiet proof of what a second chance can build.