Sunada Natsumi
Born: Tsukuba city, Ibaraki prefecture, 1994
Based: Tokyo

Beginning her higher education as an art design student with Tsubaka University in Ibaraki prefecture, Sunada Natsumi first encountered glassworking in a class in her second year. She became more and more interested as she created glassware, mixing mineral pigments into the glass to add colour. She focused more and more of her time on working with and studying glass, learning about many different expressions of glass that she had never seen before.

After graduating, Sunada-san started freelance work, wanting to make special items for people to use in their daily lives. She expresses her experiences with nature through her work; water bubbles rising on the surface of water, waves and their multitude of forms, the calmness of autumn fog, the cooling shades of winter colours, the hazy distant horizon on a warm day etc. Although everyone experiences and interprets nature in their own ways, she hopes that when people use her work somehow they feel reconnected to nature and can relive fond memories.

Using an ancient glassworking method, pâte de verre, she places glass powder into a mould and fires it in a kiln. In addition to glass powder she also adds a mineral called iwae no gu - a colouring pigment usually used in Japanese paintings and artwork. In some recent pieces she collected sand from her holidays and blended it with the glass. This has turned out to be her biggest challenge recently, requiring much experimentation and trial and error.

As each piece is unique, Sunada-san sees her work as both functional and aesthetic, to be appreciated both through use and display. The playfulness and graceful beauty can be accentuated using different lighting conditions.

Her warmth and cheerful personality definitely shines through each and every single piece she makes.

Behind each ware is a story. Our role is to introduce these stories behind different artists of the ware we use to provide a unique tea experience to our guests.