Glassware by Masahiro Ishikawa

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I thought I’d update the blog with some new craft work that I found on my travels around the web last week, it seems to have become absent from the blog lately. But I have to say I feel like we’ve been doing a good job on the shop. I mentioned before about us getting some lacquerware in the store from Japan, but I’ve also been contemplating on glassware, which is a new category that we’ve decided to push. It’s funny that once you latch on to a particular craft you find yourself coming across it a lot more often, lacquerware was a perfect example, as I was looking for great makers on the web I also end up seeing others that are worthy of a showcase. You also find that you really want to experiment with this material and try it out for yourself.

Today I picked out some glass imagery from the website Kurashikinote in Japan, I don’t know too much about this website and how it came about but I do know they have some fantastic imagery on offer. If I’m not mistaken it’s based in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, hence the name, where many factories were built during the Meiji Restoration (Japan’s Industrial Revolution period). Glassmaker Masahiro Ishikawa, who studied under famous glassmaker Shinzo Kotani in 1999, has made quite a name for himself, showing his works at the Japan Folk Crafts Museum and winning a fair few prizes. He moved his studio to Hayashima, Okayama in 2008 and has since been selling his works across Japan in various galleries and small independent craft stores, his works are shown on Kurashikinote.

As with all works that I admire, Masahiro focuses on making easy to use objects that have a strong focus on function, possibly passed down from his master Shinzo Kotani. Looking through Shinzo’s work, he has also implemented a mixture of colours that are mostly transparent or opaque, which is something Ishikawa has also experimented with in his newer pieces (looking at the gallery spaces that he’s stocked in currently). I have to say my favourite thing about these glass works are the subtle lines and waves running up and down the glass, seen below for example, this gives the glasses and vessels that extra dimension and an added bit of character from your normal manufactured piece of glass.

kurashikinote.jp

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