Keiji Okushima works primarily in hand-blown glass, embracing the material's molten fluidity rather than smoothing it away—he blows deliberately against symmetry, letting drips and the momentary gesture of hot glass in motion remain visible in the finished form. Alongside blowing, he uses kiln-casting for sculptural pieces and his own suehari process, coating unfired clay directly in glass and firing it in his glass furnace. His signature technique is self-developed: he abrades the glass for grip, paints on urushi lacquer, presses on silver leaf at the exact moment the lacquer's tack peaks, then ages the silver and fires the piece to fuse glass, lacquer, and metal into one durable layer. The result is glassware with a mottled, patinated surface and an unresolved, fluid quality — tea bowls and sake vessels that read as much like geological formations as blown glass.
Artist:
Keiji Okushima
Origin:
Shiga, Japan
Notes:
It comes with a signed wooden box. it is suitable for serving Matcha at less than 80°C; preheat the bowl with water to about 40°C. Avoid thermal shock by exposing cold glass to extremely hot/cold temperatures; the nature of hand-blown glass creates differences in size, shape, and bubble/cracking effects. Please check the dimensions and capacity, as items are smaller than they appear.
Size:
10.5x10.5x7.5cm