Monday 18 November 2013

A visit from Japan


Many good things came out of writing Illuminate and one of them was meeting Ai Kawauchi. It was my editor who introduced me to her work. She had seen her exhibiting her at Origin London and thought I might be interested in writing about her. She was right.


Ai makes incredible jewellery and lighting out of silk organza which she painstakingly ties around beans and hardens in a special solution to sculpt these shapes. She lives in Karatsu in the south of Japan and when we visited the country last year we met up and had a wonderful day exploring the bamboo forests of Kyoto.


Last week Ai was visiting London and she came up to Hebden Bridge for a day and a night to see us.



We had a gorgeous walk with the sunrise 


and we soaked up all the Autumn colours.


We talked as best we could (her English is good...my Japanese not so good) about life and work and making it as an artist. Ai has just had her first solo exhibition in Japan. I'm sure it will be the first of many.


Come back soon Ai. The cats of Hebden Bridge are missing you xxx

5 comments:

Handmade in Israel said...

What a beautiful post and a wonderful friendship!

Unknown said...

Gorgeous photos. And it just goes to show that kindred spirits can communicate regardless of language differences :)

Carola said...

Wonderful post about friendship! The autumn color shots are fantastic.

Lyn said...

What a lovely visit, I love the last photo of the cat too! Xxx

ai kawauchi said...

Remembering this wonderful time everyday:)
I'll definitely come and visit, Hannah. xxx

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