Description

KIKU #1 by Ayako Ikeda. Red Vessel with White Panel of Flowers on the Front. Measures Approx. 9″ w x 6″d x 6″h KIKU means Chrysanthemum in Japanese

About the Artist

Ayako Ikeda was born in Kumamoto, Japan. She received her BA and MA degrees in living design and architecture from The University of Shiga Prefecture in Japan. Ayako's glass art studies began in 2001 at the Toyama City Institute of Glass Art, the first public institution in Japan specializing in the field of glass art. After completing her studies in 2003, she has traveled extensively and worked with many glass artists from all over the world.

Her work is shown internationally in Japan and the United States and has been in a number of group exhibitions, including the Enomoto Gallery at Osaka and Milestone Gallery at Toyama.

Ikeda, in her personal work, blows vases which are gracefully simple and traditional in shape; however, she moves beyond the typical in her exacting technical process. She layers colors over one another, almost mimicing the layering of lacquer which is later carved, but using greater contrast in color. When the blown glass has been anealed, Ikeda uses a Dremel grinding tool to carve linear images through the layers of color. A swelling, teardrop-shaped vase from the “KIKU” series is a deep peony pink on the outside. The simple outlines of flowers cut through the translucent pink and an opaque white layer into a dark base color. The whole transparent rosy exterior is made pinker by the underlying white.