Workshop visit

We visited Igawa Ayako's studio in Ibaraki Prefecture and had the opportunity to listen to her talk and see her painting. Igawa's studio, built in a corner of his spacious family home, is in a great location, providing an environment where he can calmly concentrate on his pottery making. The studio, which was built three years ago, is still new and very beautiful both inside and out. -What made me want to become a ceramic artist?- From a young age, Igawa loved drawing, making things, and using his hands. His grandfather painted Japanese-style paintings, and when he was in junior high school, the popular manga series Honey & Clover became popular, which inspired him to aspire to attend art school, so he enrolled in the Japanese-style painting course at Kyoto University of Art and Design. When it came time to think about finding a job, he began to wonder about his future and what kind of job would suit him as he searched for a job that would allow him to use his Japanese painting skills. Unable to find an answer, and with graduation approaching, the idea of ​​pottery painting suddenly crossed my mind, and I thought that by combining my pottery techniques with those of Japanese painting, I might be able to make use of my own sensibilities. - Embarking on a new path in pottery that he had never experienced before - Since Kasama, a city famous for its pottery, is located in Ibaraki Prefecture, where he was born, he entered the Kasama Pottery Training Center after graduating from university. During his university days, he had the opportunity to listen to a ceramics professor speak as part of his classes, but it was only after he entered the ceramics training center that he actually got in touch with ceramics. When he first tried turning on a potter's wheel, it didn't go well at all and he thought it wasn't for him. Among his fellow students, some with experience using a potter's wheel were able to make nearly 100 pieces in a day, but Igawa struggled to get the shape right and was only able to make 15 , which made him feel that potter's wheel was not for him. However, the casting technique he learned in the next curriculum (a method of creating a plaster mold and pouring in a slurry called slip, which is the raw material for pottery) suited Igawa's personality and felt right. "With a potter's wheel, you have to decide the shape of something that's constantly moving in an instant, and it's difficult to keep up with that speed. With casting, if you can make a mold accurately, you can create the product you want, so I thought I could do it too." Igawa's current works include round plates and mugs made on a potter's wheel, and stylish plates and boxes made by casting. - What I felt when I came to the world of pottery - When he first entered the world of pottery, he found that it involved a lot more physical work than he had imagined, and he was worried about whether he could continue. However, Igawa says he is still able to continue creating pottery because it suits his personality. "In the world of painting, I didn't know where to place the brush. I would add a little bit, thinking maybe I should do this bit a little more...I didn't know when it would be finished, and it always made me anxious. If you want to add more, you can add as much as you want. But with pottery, you make it from clay, and once it's fired, there is a definite end - 'completion'. That gives me peace of mind. Only recently have I realised that it was a good fit for me." - Until the start of the workshop - After studying at a ceramics training center, she worked part-time under other ceramic artists while creating her works in rented kilns, and after getting married, she created her works in a room in her apartment. It was only after her child was born that she decided to set up a studio. As the number of things he had increased and he could no longer secure enough space to work, he decided that "he needed a studio to do pottery seriously." With this in mind, he made up his mind and rented the land on his parents' property to set up a workshop. Originally, it was difficult to dispose of the wastewater and mud, so they had always felt that they needed a workshop to be able to create freely. When he was making his pottery in Kasama, there were many other artists around, so he would inevitably see their works and would often feel depressed by comparing them.However, after setting up his studio, he was able to work at his own pace, and he was able to feel more stable mentally and devote himself to pottery making. -About the style- Igawa's gorgeous works feature eye-catching designs of cute flowers and animals. Originally, he mainly painted flowers and plants, but after a gallery that had been helping him for a while suggested he try painting animals, he began painting more animals. "I like looking at Scandinavian goods and Indian textiles. When I look at illustrated guides for animals, I feel like they'll end up looking too realistic, so I use picture books as reference. I think I'll try drawing them in a simplified way like this. I often draw several patterns on drawing paper before deciding on an image. I just love drawing, so I enjoy thinking about what kind of design to make and painting the pottery." ◎Finally, we asked him what he keeps in mind when making pottery. It's about making it carefully. If I rush into making something, I often end up regretting it later and thinking I should have done it a certain way, so I try to stop and fix anything I notice while I'm there. If I think that a certain part of the picture didn't turn out well, I erase it without hesitation. If I let it go at that point, thinking it's okay, my eyes will still be drawn to that spot even after the piece is finished baking. I regret not having taken the time to fix it at the time, so even if other people don't notice, once I put it up for sale, I can't get it back, so I try to paint each picture carefully so that I don't have any regrets.

We had the opportunity to visit Maki Nakamura's Maki Glass Studio in Kyoto, where we had the opportunity to tour the studio and speak with her.The studio was renovated and taken over from the space that Nakamura's parents previously used as an architectural design office. The room he showed us through was decorated with documents about houses designed by his father, books on pottery, and beautiful works by his friends; it was a space filled with all the things Nakamura loves. -What led you to become a glass artist?-Her parents worked in architectural design, and many of her relatives and friends were artists or involved in making things, so from a young age she would watch them talk happily about their creative activities. With these influences, it was only natural that I had been considering a career in the arts since high school, but one day, when I was looking at glass objects by Shibuya Ryoji (former director of the Toyama City Glass Art Museum), I was shocked by the objects made from glass, a material that is so familiar to me, and I was strongly attracted to glass works, which led me to pursue a career as a glass artist.-The journey to becoming a glass artist-Although he became interested in glasswork, in the 1990s there were no universities in Kyoto where he could study glasswork, and no easy-to-research system was available. Therefore, he studied ceramic art at Kyoto City University of Arts, a familiar place where his father had graduated, where he majored in ceramics. However, Nakamura still had an interest in glasswork, so during his university days he took a break to study glassmaking at a glass workshop in Noto for a short period of time. He experienced firsthand how difficult glassmaking is and realized that he could not create glasswork without serious consideration. However, when he was about to graduate from his fourth year of university, his teacher informed him that the Toyama Glass Art Institute had been established, and his passion for glasswork was rekindled, so he decided to enroll. While studying at the Toyama Glass Art Institute, he learned all about glass, but he focused on creating objects. He honed his pottery making skills after graduating and getting a job at Toyama Glass Studio. "When it comes time for farewell parties, we receive orders for dozens of the same dishes as gifts. For this reason, we need to make the same shape and size of dishes in a short period of time, and by continuing to make them day after day, we have been able to hone our skills." After completing his three-year term at the studio, he worked freelance, renting glass kilns around the country and exhibiting his works at exhibitions for about five years before returning to Kyoto and deciding to start his own glass studio. - Until the glass workshop was launched - When he decided to go independent, it was quite a challenge for an individual to purchase a glass kiln, so he asked Naoya Arakawa, a glass artist active in Kyoto Prefecture, to train him on how to build a kiln himself. At this time, Nakamura was already exhibiting his work as a freelancer, so rather than being an apprentice, he attended Arakawa's glass workshop specifically to learn how to make kilns.He said, "I am truly grateful. I can't sleep at night without thinking."[About production activities and facilities]"Creating glass works requires spending half of your time and effort on the work itself and the other half on maintaining the equipment."The three furnaces in Nakamura's workshop that we were shown were all originally kerosene furnaces that Nakamura had made, but due to rising fuel prices following the Lehman Shock and adverse weather conditions, some of them were changed to electric kilns.At first glance, if you just look at the beautiful works, it seems unrelated to such issues, but it seems that the most important thing in creating glass works is the management of the equipment. In addition to daily maintenance of the equipment, Nakamura responds flexibly to changes in the environment, such as global affairs and climate change, and continues to create glass works while updating his equipment.He has a very friendly and gentle personality, but behind that lies his dedication to creating his work, overcoming various difficulties, and I was once again reminded of his passion. -Source of inspiration for the work-Surprisingly, he says that his inspiration comes not from glassworks, but from visiting exhibitions of ceramics and other materials."What if we were to express these things in glass?""How would you go about doing it?"I think about this and apply it to my own work.When serving food or going out to eat,What kind of dish would look best served with this food? It seems that the works are designed with the actual situations in which they will be used in mind."I strive to create pieces that are not only beautiful, but also make food look great, and that are easy to use and coordinate with other pieces when lined up on the table," he said. ◎Finally, we asked customers how they would like to use the product."I hope you will use it freely and enjoy it.Some customers use our products in wonderful ways that the makers never even imagined, and this is a learning experience for us.I hope that those who purchase it will enjoy it for their own purposes."