Posted 5 years ago
racer4four
(586 items)
Kaoru Okawa was a glass artist from Japan who spent most of his working life at Tsugaru Vidro, in Aomori. He died in 2008.
Like most artists working in production facilities, he also made items under his own name and this set is one of his artisan pieces.
It has been made from murrine, or slices of glass made from glass canes. Murrine are a bit like slices of boiled and pulled lolly, and the slices show the colours and organisation of the stripes originally put into the candy.
The murrine have then been picked up on the punty and blown and worked to form these shapes. After annealing they have been given a matte finish, probably by sand blasting.
There is a very feint signature on the base of the bowl.
There is an incredible amount of talent and time in items such as these. They are so different to a lot of glass art, and the colours are very Japanese in their contrast and unique blend.
They are small but special.
Bowl: 7cm high 7.5cm wide. Dish: 1.5cm high 8cm wide.
Absolutely gorgeous and highly original bowl with such lovely mosaic colors & unique texture, Okawa was a fabulous artist & thank you for showing this beauty
Thanks Jenny! As always, a great comment.
Up early or down late?
Love this vibrant, yet curiously muted colour combination - & the satin finish further adds to the unique impression this piece creates. Something special!
mesmerising !!!!!!!! karen
all the very best malkey
1412
It is a different and cool colour-way isn't it IL!
Thanks for your thoughts, always valued.
Hey Malkey! Thanks for dropping in and loving my glass.
Hope all is going honky dory.
These are amazing!Colours combination,technique,design - everything points to a master's hand.
WoW! Fantastic glass creation. Thanks Karen for posting.
Spectacular colors!!!
Absolutely beautiful bowl with so many things going on.Its like a painting on glass.I’ll have to do the metric conversion to find out its size.I’m an old timeer that measures everything in inches feet and yards.Very Nice acquisition Karen
Thanks Ivonne, always happy to hear from you.
Have you some more lovely Polish glass to post? It’s always a delight to see things we don’t get down here.
Thanks Lisa, very different glass to your usual. I am still amazed at what a flexible media glass is.
Like coral or something hey Scott. Thanks for the love and comment.
Jim I used to put old measurements in as well as metric but now I just leave size to your imagination lol!
Thanks for loving my new things.
Hi Karen,
I am almost always "up early," now it is @ 3 a.m. NY time and been up for an hour! Chronic insomniac, but like to post around this time late in wk as it is quieter on this site lol
It's interesting to read that this is a Japanese blend of colours as what hit me immediately was the 'otherness' of it. They are stunning yet a little eerie at the same time. Have you had them long and if so how do people react to them?
I can't really say it's a regular Japanese colour blend Peggy, it's just different enough to be Japanese, if you follow my logic!
Apart from when I have posted it, mainly only family have seen it and they are used to the weird, and me talking things up. I did take it and show a glass blowing acquaintance of mine and he clarified how it was made. I knew it was murrine but thought it had been cast after building, but he is certain it was blown. He was impressed with it for aesthetic and glassmaking, so that was good to hear.
You always post such interesting comments, thanks for doing so!
stunning Karen!!!
Thanks Sweetie!