I'm Špela Hvala. SPHV Studio is a small ceramics practice in Slovenia, making handmade tiles and sometimes jewelry and coffee cups.
By trade I'm a software developer with a passion for mathematics. Outside the screen, I'm a ceramicist with a passion for pattern design, glaze exploration and rustic vibes.
I mix all my own glazes, which means I also do a lot of testing. The starting point can be almost anything; a color noticed in a historic fresco, a rock picked up on a walk, a leaf that has been through a particularly difficult weather. Something catches my eye and the process begins. Measurements are taken, materials are weighed, notes are written down. It is a slow process with a long waiting period, and somewhere at the end of it, after the kiln has had its say, a new color finds its way onto a tile and becomes part of a pattern that would not exist without that one moment of noticing.
SPHV Studio started as a way of turning moments of inspiration into something you can actually touch. Inspiration is everywhere but it disappears quickly, and tiles felt like the right way to hold onto it, to take a moment of curiosity and fire it into something that will still be on a wall in many years. A small but satisfying way of returning something to the world that keeps providing the raw material.
I am only one person so I work in small batches. If you find yourself installing my tiles, there is a good chance no one else within a reasonable distance owns the same ones.
I mix my own glazes and I am constantly searching for something interesting and unique. There is always a story behind the color of a glaze, the shape of a tile, and the flow of a pattern.
I design every pattern myself and cut each tile. The result is a tile that carries the natural variation of a handmade object without ever compromising on quality or finish.
