Behind the Clay
Welcome, dear friend. If you were visiting my ceramic studio in person, I would hand you a mug and insist on making you coffee or tea. Since we’re meeting online, I trust you’ll take care of that for me. I’ll wait.
My name is Živa and I am the hands and mind behind SAPER VEDERE STUDIO. I spend my days creating in a small, cave-like studio in Ljubljana, surrounded by the smell of fresh coffee beans and patient piles of clay that never seem to get any smaller. I am endlessly fascinated by the duality of working with clay, the discipline it demands and the freedom it offers, often at the exact same moment.
“My path into ceramics was instinctive rather than academic.”
I completed a degree in Media Communications just before I found, and happily surrendered to, the pull of clay. The real education began in Studio Biskvit, where I learned the foundations of hand-building and wheel-throwing and gradually evolved from a loyal customer into a team member. Over the years I designed and led hand-building workshops for adults and a wheel-throwing class for children, while renting a small corner of the studio to call my own. There I spent long evenings experimenting with clay pigments, colour combinations and forms, usually losing track of time and occasionally of clean surfaces. Everything I know about nerikomi is the result of curiosity, stubborn persistence and an enthusiasm for learning by doing. Failure has been a demanding but fair and surprisingly consistent teacher.
Working with clay has taught me that seeing is a skill you can train. Nerikomi especially leaves no room for careless looking. Every layer, every cut and every colour decision asks for attention. Over time I learned to recognise opportunities hidden in accidents and experiments. That practice quietly shaped how I move through the world, attentive to detail, curious about process and open to what might emerge.
