Eva´s portfolio at Finnish Designers.
I started UDUMBARA and making kitchenware pottery in 1994. My first product was a stoneware sauerkraut/kimchi jar for “city” gourmet people. You could easily disinfect it in the oven and it fitted in a refrigerator.
In my youth, I lived in Massachusetts and got acquainted with the Shaker movement’s minimalism and simplicity of their beautiful everyday objects at Hancock Shaker Village. Their functional aspect has inspired me while creating the small-scale series for Udumbara.
After attending Somero II International Ceramic seminar in Kultela Brick Factory in 1999. I got to know the owner and master of the brick factory in Kultela, Arvo Kankare.
There I got my first touch and passion for the beautiful but demanding Finnish wild clay and with Arvos’s guidance started to make functional products with it.
Inventing the bag-in-box wine cooler took me all away to China where I worked on a ceramic project in periods in Yixing, Dingshu town (2004–2006).
Wine cooler for bag-in-box wine. 
Here is a photo of one of my best moments in Dingshu: The men at the factory could not believe that I can throw clay. They were astonished when I showed them my throwing. The women in the factory cheered me with laughter and this was how I earned the respect from the men.
After seeing all the factories there and the pollution there. I felt that there was no longer reason or demand for the way I was still doing pottery in Finland and started to work at Helsinki Airport.
Luckily I have found back my passion for pottery. Now I exclusively work with Finnish wild clay. I love making simple wild clay terracotta flowerpots and sculptures.
The wild clay has its own temperamental nature that needs patience when working but I enjoy the rewarding results that are lively and tactile. The material is very delicate and her bigger objects will require months of aging of the clay before firing. The material gives the products a wonderfully rich earthy character.
By choosing this raw material I want to emphasize the unique value of local natural clay. Finnish natural clay is warm, homely and above all an ethical choice, because the source is known and as a natural raw material it does not require complex processing and it is fired to a ready product at a low temperature.
Currently, I focus entirely on making flower pots and sculptures, I want to do transparent production where the origin of the materials is 100% known.
Photo courtesy of Michiko Erkola.
Photo courtesy of Huy Trần Quang
Thank You,
Eva “Hele” Spoof (f.Sarvela)
I also arranged pottery wheel workshops and shared meditations at the studio. Welcome.
All our upcoming workshops at HELSINKI POTTERY WHEEL AND MEDITATION GROUP
