Nami Kawakami, who creates pottery in Kyoto.

She developed a familiarity with handicrafts like sewing from childhood and went on to Kyoto City University of Arts. During her student days, she focused on creating objects and rarely made tableware outside of assignments. However, after graduating from university, she decided to pursue a path in pottery making. She has continued her creative activities through self-study and trial and error. Currently, she is a member of the craft group "Kaze Aoku Warai Kurasu" (Wind, Green, Laughter, Living).

The charm of Ms. Kawakami's work lies in its feminine, soft appearance and the distinct feeling of the artist's touch. Her pieces are created using a type of hand-building called "coil building," where clay is rolled into long coils, stacked one by one, and then smoothed by hand to form the desired shape.

Hand-building is a technique that can be physically demanding, but Ms. Kawakami has always been drawn to the process of stacking each coil, the sense of speed, and the high degree of freedom in shaping, and has continuously created her work using this method.

Her works are crafted with an emphasis on being "easy to use daily and comfortable to hold," and she verifies their usability in her own daily life. While utilizing the gentle undulations unique to hand-building, she also incorporates sharpness to achieve a clean form.

The works created by Ms. Kawakami in this way exude a warmth characteristic of handcrafted items, while also possessing a presence that subtly elevates the space around them.