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| Inochi No Utsuwa by Takahiro Kondo |
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| Takahiro Kondo |
Ruthin Craft Centre in Wales is currently showing 'Japanese Style: Sustaining Design'. An exhibition programme showing how Japanese designers and artists 'can make a valuable contribution to sustainable development by focusing on the relationship between the traditional and the innovative.'
I was interested in Takahiro Kondo's project 'Inochi no Utsuwa'. He works with people in the Tohoku area of Japan. Some of whom were directly affected by last year's earthquake. The community project gets people involved in the act of making. They can focus on doing something that in turn becomes a beautiful object that is distributed to the survivors of the disaster. Pictured here are some of their teabowls for sale in Wales. I believe 'Inochi no Utsuwa' means 'vessel of life' and this project certainly encompasses that spirit.
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| Koji Shiraya |
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| Koji Shiraya |
I was drawn to the work of Koji Shiraya, a contemporary Japanese maker living in London. I love the way he captures movement within the material, cleverly controlling the feldspar to form fluid like lids.
