Fujiwara made a collection of paired cups out of porcelain with iron-based oxidative elements. She calls them her “Cookies & Cream” series. Designed with liquid glaze accents spilling over the rim, imagine cappuccino, your favorite tea, some milk, or even the blue ocean! Each cup is quite unique, but has a partner that was selected for its character and affinity for the other. Enjoy these cups during tea time with your loved one!
Born in Japan, Miyako Fujiwara was interested in ceramics throughout her youth but did not start her relationship with clay until studying tea ceremony after graduating from college, where she studied Mathematics in Tokyo. After college, while she was working as a computer programmer, she trained in the practice of Japanese traditional arts and crafts, such as tea ceremony, Ikebana flower arrangement, Japanese embroidery, rope weaving, and sewing kimonos. Later she moved to the US and became involved in the ceramics program at Harvard University while working as an Assistant Curator at the Museum of Natural History and Anthropology. Benefiting from that extensive program, she gained experience in all varieties of firing: soda, wood, raku, and saggar.
Fujiwara moved to Charleston at the end of 2010 and became a member at Cone 10 Studios where she continues to gain practical experience with running the studio, such as mixing glazes, loading and unloading kilns, recycling clay, and setting up exhibits at the Cone 10 Studios gallery. In 2012, she became an instructor for the Throwing for Beginner’s class offered several times annually at Cone 10. The same year, she also became a member of Charleston Crafts Cooperative by juried evaluation of her work and continues to interact with potters, ceramics studios, and galleries during her frequent trips back to Japan.
What she enjoys most about clay is the meditative quality coupled with physical action of throwing and the unpredictable aspect of glazing in high-fire. Still inspired by tea ceremony, she just loves that atmosphere… quiet, peaceful, serene, slow but beautiful and efficient movement, harmony with nature, sound of the water. In her creative process as a ceramicist, Fujiwara aspires to an essential aspect of tea ceremony, which is to make all guests feel relaxed, content and happy.
FEATURED WITH:
Mariah Channing
Olivia Cramer
Fred Jamar
Jennifer Henriques Phillips
Kristi Ryba