With a Fine Arts degree from Elam School of Fine Arts and a handful of international residencies under her belt, Annie Sandano has been coming to the Coromandel since her family moved to Hahei 25 years ago. More recently, after living and working in Florence and London, and a flourishing ceramics arm to her Fine Art practice, she has returned to her Coromandel roots to set up her dream ceramics gallery and studio 5 minutes from Hahei Village – Hahei Clay. Purpose-built on a grassy slope overlooking Mercury Bay, Hahei Clay has a ceramics studio as well as a separate exhibition gallery where she invites other ceramicists, potters and artists to exhibit alongside her owh Hahei Clay works over the summer months.