Studio H50

I meet up with Hera and Hulda, the two creative forces behind Studio H50, on a sunny Sunday morning. I bring my 2 year old daughter along as she needs some fresh air before her midday nap and I tell her “you’ll have lots of fun! This place is full of clay”. It gets her seemingly excited, although the clay these two women use is nothing like the classic PlayDough my daughter is familiar with. H50 only use natural material, such as clay they source right from Iceland steaming geothermal mud pool resevoirs such as Gunnuhver, Krýsivík and Hveragerði. Places that turn lava rock into clay. As well as dyeing these natural clays with algae and other natural substances.

Hera and Hulda tell me at their studio, that they knew each other in passing before they actually started speaking to eachother on Instagram (where else?) “It was a total coincidence really. What started as a casual chat on Instagram in November turned into a DesignMarch project application that then turned into us leasing the studio space on Hverfisgata 50 and finally the creation of this ever evolving concept that is Studio H50”.

being sustainable a logical next step

Working sustainably and using all natural ingredients is very important they tell me, Hera explains that for her “it has been a process over time, working my way into using natural materials and once you're there the sustainability angle just follows. Iceland is also the perfect place to live and work and think in a sustainable way so, it was more of a logical next step than a calculated decision”. Hulda then goes on to tell me that she has “always been focused on using what is here already and I think it's also the way of working with and around clay you get to be more present and respectful to the material that you are using. I look at clay like gold, it's not a material that will be here forever”.

When we speak about the more technical side of things of ceramics and clay, Hulda says “I fell in love with Icelandic clay when I first started my studies at Reykjavík School of visual arts and there was no turning back. I love how challenging the material is, it's so different to the store bought clay in so many ways. The clay is difficult for hand-building and throwing but somehow if you give it time and also really try to understand it something happens. As a ceramicist working with glazes you learn that they are very, very rich in all kinds of toxins. I have been having this idea in my stomach to try to make glaze that was totally toxic free and 100% made from natural materials and then we managed to make it happen!” Hera then adds, “I've only ever worked with factory made or store bought clay and glazes so to me this has been completely uncharted territory.

Basically every thing that I though I knew turned out not to apply to our chosen material which in a way is the true beauty of the project. My background isn't technical like Hulda's so most of the time I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing or where I'm going but the material is just so interesting that even when something doesn't turn out the way you thought it would, it just opens up more possibilities”.

ideas based on memory and nostalgia

The creative duo want to invite the public to come see their process and what they are doing at H50. So you can see how each piece come from an idea, and lots of vigorous testing. Hera tell us that her creative process “can be quite messy and stinky sometimes, specially last months when I've been dying old textiles with the algae we harvest. Before my process used to start while traveling and I've used the idea of memories and my own nostalgia a lot and it was only when I started working in clay that the material started to lead the process, which I quite like. Since my background is in design and fashion, the solution-oriented approach is never far but it can also be quite limiting to always start with "a problem" that you're trying to "solve" as opposed to putting focus on the narrative that is all around”. Huldas process involved trying to learn as much about the material as possible, she explains, “trying to understand it, make it become my friend and defending it whenever some old ceramic artist here in Iceland tell me that I am wasting my time with it. We wanted to focus on giving the public a good insight into the creative process, seeing our mood board, glaze recipes and being very transparent with our work”.

I ask them the importance of being able to show the public, the viewer, the process of their work. Why is this important to them? Hera replies “this was actually a part of our very first chat back in November 2020. I was still in Paris and we FaceTimed a couple of times and we kept going back to this idea of why we see what we see. This then goes back to Bruno Munari and his ideas about art and design which is also a connecting thread for us two. To me it's just so interesting and juicy to try to tap into other peoples emotions and not tell them what they should be seeing or feeling, rather let them be a part of the project or the product by acknowledging that we don't experience things and situations in the same way”.

went to new york to figure what to do with her life

As we chat over our coffee, I ask Hulda how her interest in ceramics began. I’ve seen a lot of her work popping up on social media, so I’m curious how she got into it. “My love for ceramics really started when I quit my job as a buyer and store manager for a beautiful brand and retail space called Geysir. I think it's safe to say that I had this midlife crisis at the age of 23 which sounds insane but yes. I went to New York to try to figure out what I really wanted to do with my life. There was a ceramic studio just in the next building to where I was staying. I walked past the studio everyday and spied through the window (like a crazy person) to see some action. Few days passed and then the woman who was working there saw me by the window and said ‘our workshop is full but I have seen you for the past week, you can come after hours and tell me who you are and I will teach you how to throw on the wheel’. Two years later, having this idea stuck in my head that I could just go and study ceramics, I applied for the ceramics diploma at the Reykjavík School of Visual Arts and there was no turning back. I hope my practice will lead me to more learning and making things that tell a story and will make people curious and excited”.

Heras background is in fashion and she graduated with BA degree in Fashion and Textile Design from Iceland University of the Arts in 2012. “I worked as a designer for two years in Paris after graduation for a small niche brand called Yazbukey and after that I almost accidentally started working more in the field of visual arts”.

Very few things planned in her career

“Very few things in my career have been planned and I've basically been working my way towards finding my place within the creative sphere. I originally only intended to stay for 3 monhts in Paris back in 2012 but ended up living there for 8 years and coming back home to Iceland with a boyfriend and a daughter. Our move was a total Covid-move; we had discussed moving to Scandinavia or maybe Germany before our daughter would start pre-school but then 2020 came and changed our plans, which so far has just been great”.

The experience at H50 is very wide ranging, from Huldas experience in retail, buying and ceramics and how it moved her towards a more creative career. So I’m curious to know if Heras background at Lemaire pushed her towards this side of the creative world as well. Hera says “yes, absolutely, I started working for Lemaire in 2017 and have been a part of their commercial team since. Working in commercial wholesale was quite new to me back then and I this job was a turning point for me in so many ways creatively. The narrative is such a big part of Lemaire's DNA which makes the commercial aspect so interestering because you're basically telling a story each time you present a collection and you want that story to be told a certain way but lived and heard in as many different ways as possible. You could also say that my interest in sustainability or circularity comes from my time there since the brand is all about creating and giving life to pieces that are meant to be worn over a lifetime and so much emphasis is put on a garment's story”.