Higo Estudio Cerámico is a ceramic design and production studio founded in 2019. From its workshop in Calp, Spain, it creates functional pieces and decorative objects in stoneware, combining artisanal processes with a contemporary approach to design.
The studio specialises in functional stoneware ceramic art, prioritising aesthetics, materiality and the dialogue between each piece and the space it inhabits. Its collections are developed both as limited series of unique pieces and as bespoke projects for gastronomy, retail spaces and brands, responding to specific needs of use, identity and context.
Higo Estudio Cerámico works from a careful and conscious approach, where design, manual production and the architecture of the surrounding environment come together to create objects intended for everyday use and contemplation.
Discover more about our work in the portfolio.
Founder and designer
I am Barb Combellas, a Venezuelan ceramicist and designer based in Calp, Spain. I studied Social Communication and completed a postgraduate degree in Ceramic Design with a focus on Food Design at FADU, University of Buenos Aires. I began my ceramics training in London, at Turning Earth, where I worked as a resident ceramicist between 2017 and 2019. In 2019, I founded Higo Estudio Cerámico, consolidating my professional and authorial practice.
My work focuses on modelling and slab-building with stoneware clay. My pieces are characterised by the use of clay bodies coloured with oxides and pigments, sand-textured finishes and the intentional absence of glaze across much of the surface, allowing the clay and slips to take centre stage.
I draw inspiration from Art Deco, Art Nouveau and Postmodernist architecture, as well as from the organic, curved constructions of traditional Venezuelan adobe. I conceive each piece from a spatial perspective, always considering its relationship with the surrounding architecture and the environment in which it will be used. Each series functions as a collective of unique objects, creating rhythmic and balanced visual compositions when presented together.
My creative process combines planning and control with room for the chance inherent in the material. The natural variations of stoneware bring character and singularity, while the colour, texture and identity of each piece are defined from the conceptual stage, especially in the development of small series and limited editions.
In addition to production, I teach classes for children and adults at my studio/workshop, located at C/ Portalet 3, ground floor, Calp, Spain.