In a sunlit studio in Pune, rows of ceramic tiles covered in hand-painted florals and winding vines quietly rest on long wooden tables. Shades of cobalt blue, earthy green, and burnt orange give each piece the warmth of something made slowly, patiently, by hand.
Over the years, these handmade tiles have found their way into celebrity homes like a 6,000-tile kitchen installation for Sonam Kapoor, international projects, and even collaborations with IKEA.
At the centre of this world is Shibani Dhavalikar, an artist who transformed her love for painting into a thriving ceramic studio that brings heritage-inspired art into modern Indian homes.
How a side hobby became something bigger
But eight years ago, her life looked very different.
After spending nearly a decade in education, Shibani gradually moved into the ed-tech space, where her work became increasingly technology-driven and desk-bound.
“It wasn’t that I hated my work,” she says. “I just felt disconnected from creativity.”
Art, however, had always existed quietly in the background of her life. As a child, she would constantly paint, doodle, and make things by hand. But like many people, she never imagined creativity could become a livelihood.
As a child, she would constantly paint, doodle, and make things by hand. But like many people, she never imagined creativity could become a livelihood.
So after work, she began painting again — mostly florals, colourful illustrations, and patterns that brought her joy. Around the same time, Instagram and Facebook were becoming spaces where artists could share their work, and Shibani started posting her paintings online.
To her surprise, people noticed.
“They responded to the colours and the handmade quality of it,” she recalls. “That was the first time I wondered if creativity could become something more.”
The flea market stall that changed everything
Her earliest products were hand-painted wooden photo frames and nameplates. While still juggling her full-time job, she signed up for a flea market in Bengaluru almost on a whim.
“I remember making around a hundred frames and just showing up,” she says. “I used to visit flea markets and wonder what it would feel like to be on the other side.”
Shibani Dhavalikar, an artist who transformed her love for painting into a thriving ceramic studio that brings heritage-inspired art into modern Indian homes.
The response overwhelmed her. The frames sold quickly, and people who missed the flea market began reaching out through Instagram. Small orders started trickling in, and what had begun as a creative escape slowly started looking like a real possibility.
A few months later, Shibani quit her job and moved back to Pune to pursue creativity full-time.
A failed experiment that led her to ceramics
In the beginning, she took on every kind of creative commission imaginable — paintings, digital artwork, handcrafted décor.
Then came one project that changed everything.
A client commissioned hand-painted wall plates. Shibani bought ceramic plates from a local market and painted them with acrylics, the only medium she knew at the time. But the paint peeled off almost immediately.
“That failure became an obsession,” she says. “I wanted to know why paint wouldn’t stay on ceramics and how traditional ceramic art lasted for years.”
Searching for answers led her to Jaipur, where she immersed herself in the centuries-old tradition of blue pottery. For ten days, she learnt directly from local artisans and witnessed how deeply craft traditions are tied to local culture and inherited knowledge.
But the experience also gave her clarity.
A few months later, Shibani quit her job and moved back to Pune to pursue creativity full-time.
“I had quit my job to paint, not necessarily to become a potter,” she says.
She wanted to find a way to bring her art onto ceramic surfaces without having to master the entire craft of pottery from scratch.
For months, she researched materials and experimented relentlessly before discovering a little-known industrial ceramic medium through a professor associated with Mumbai’s Sir JJ School of Art. The technique allowed her to paint on ceramic surfaces in a durable, washable way without making the ceramics herself.
She began with tableware and ceramic nameplates, products that made thoughtful gifts. Their popularity sparked a new idea: bringing art into everyday spaces through hand-painted kitchen tiles.
How COVID unexpectedly changed her business
About three years into the journey, Shibani was still operating out of a small setup when COVID hit. She feared the business would collapse.
But something unexpected happened. As people stayed physically apart from loved ones, handmade objects suddenly carried emotional meaning.
“It wasn’t booming, but it was steady in a way I didn’t expect,” she says.
About three years into the journey, Shibani was still operating out of a small setup when COVID hit. She feared the business would collapse.
Then one Instagram message changed the trajectory of her business. An architect from Surat discovered her work online and asked whether her ceramics could work as kitchen tiles. That conversation led to Shibani’s first large-scale installation project — nearly 1,000 hand-painted tiles.
“At that point, I didn’t even have a proper studio or a team,” she says with a laugh. “But we figured it out.”
Bringing handmade heritage art into modern homes
Today, her studio works closely with homeowners, architects, and interior designers to create custom ceramic tiles inspired by Indian heritage, nature, and everyday life.
“When someone comes to us, it’s not about copying a Pinterest image,” she says. “It’s about creating something personal for the space.”
Every project is custom-designed and hand-painted; pricing varies based on the artwork and scale involved. The studio’s tile installations typically start at around Rs 2,500 per sq ft.
One of the studio’s defining moments came when actor Sonam Kapoor discovered their work through Instagram and commissioned a 6,000-tile kitchen installation.
The scale was intimidating. Every tile had to be painted by hand, and many formed continuous murals where no two pieces were identical. If even one tile broke during transport, recreating it perfectly became nearly impossible.
And that challenge taught her one of the biggest lessons of her business: shipping fragile ceramics is often harder than painting them.
The packaging lessons no one talks about
“People think painting is the hardest part. Honestly, shipping fragile ceramics across cities and countries has probably taught us the most,” she laughs.
Over the years, her team spent countless hours studying packaging materials, box strengths, and insulation techniques. They eventually moved away from large shipping aggregators and began working with smaller courier partners who handled every package with greater care.
“There were times when a tile broke at an installation site in Mumbai, and someone from my team had to physically travel there to fix the issue,” she says.
That attention to detail eventually helped the studio take on international projects, too.
From Pune to Chile
Recently, Shibani’s team completed a custom tile project for a family building a home in a small town in Chile. The family wanted the installation to honour the local flora and fauna displaced during construction, so they shared references of native plants, berries, birds, and animals found around their land.
For weeks, Shibani’s team studied unfamiliar ecosystems and translated them into hand-painted ceramic motifs.
One of the studio’s defining moments came when actor Sonam Kapoor discovered their work through Instagram and commissioned a 6,000-tile kitchen installation.
“We realised how personal people’s relationship with their homes can be,” she says. “They wanted every detail to mean something.”
The finished tiles eventually travelled all the way from Pune to Chile — a journey that still amazes her.
“In what world would I have ever connected with a family from Chile?” she says. “That’s the power of Instagram. You can sit in your studio and still create something meaningful for someone on the other side of the world.”
Authenticity is the studio’s biggest growth engine
In an era where handmade art often struggles to compete with mass-produced décor, Shibani believes storytelling made all the difference.
From the beginning, she used Instagram not as a polished marketing platform, but as a visual diary documenting experiments, failed pieces, sketches, glazing processes, and behind-the-scenes moments.
“There were no ads or paid campaigns ever,” she says. “Just honest sharing.”
That authenticity helped people connect not only with the finished product, but also with the labour, patience, and craftsmanship behind it.
“People hesitate to spend on handmade work because they don’t always see the effort behind it,” she explains. “But when they witness the process, they begin to understand its value.”
Building a creative life
Today, Shibani’s studio has grown into a team of eight people, with its hand-painted tiles finding a place in nearly 1,000 kitchens over the past year alone. But for her, the most meaningful part of the journey is not the scale — it is the fact that something once dismissed as “just a hobby” slowly became a sustainable creative livelihood.
“We live in a time where sharing is free,” she says. “A small studio and a celebrity exist on the same platform. If you show up consistently and honestly, people find you.”
To explore her work or enquire about custom projects, readers can connect with Shibani through her Instagram page.
