ArtShop Tsukibae

I decided to study ceramic art when I first came in touch with the works made by Scandinavian Ceramic Artists, Birger Kaipiainen and Rut Bryk, at "The Finland Design Exhibition" held at Fuchu City Art Museum in 2017. I originally had interest in flat works such as Graphic Designs, but after encountering with their artworks, I became fascinated by glaze and mud, and chose to study further in Ceramic Course. Glaze‘s various vivid color variations, rich textures, somewhat unrealistic molding expressions, and free and unleashed senses, gives me not just energy but also even some sort of envy.
After coming in touch with Ceramic Art, the pictorial expressions of Ceramics have continued to be my biggest shaft, and I have been producing artworks concentrating on the colorings of pottery for 3 years. I hope to produce artworks that have two-sides, a one-piece graphics when looking from afar, and the unique texture and molding of pottery emerging when upclose.

part of the test piece

some of the parts under construction

I produce by choosing several unglazed parts made in advance and fit them like puzzles. The most important part when making unglazed parts is to make as many varieties as I can, because it is necessary to have a variation of parts when making a flexible molding later on. The parts are cut out from a single flattened clay mainly made by an electric machine, and I pile or engrave them to make various textures. Afterwards, I chose several parts and when the combinations are decided, I combine several glazes and colorants and color according to color compositions. My artworks are inspired by interest and concern for the colors of ceramics, and by having a feature of pottery-ness in 3 dimension, and also a vivid color composition like in a single graphic design, I hope to produce an expression interesting in both visual and tactile. Therefore, I consider this process of deciding shape and color to be my basis in production, and it takes the longest time.

I think I liked thinking about color and was quite choosy about it ever since I was little. Even in daily life, when I find something in a certain color that I like (for example paper bags, advertisement papers, posters, buttons, stickers, candy wrappers, etc.), I bring it home and combine them like puzzles and play with them in my free time. My style in producing artwork when combining several shapes and colors like a collage is similar to this type of play.
The possibilities in color expression with pottery is infinite. I try to experiment daily with color using glaze and pigments to find various expressions, and when I obtain a color or texture that I didn’t expect, I am deeply moved by it. I will continue to experiment many ways, and try to find new colors.