笠間焼き · Apprenticing traditional ceramics in Kasama Japan. In 2014, I moved to the Japan countryside to teach English. In my first year of teaching, a fellow teacher introduced me to the Kobayashi family. I started visiting their studio every weekend, eventually becomig a full-time apprentice to Michio Kobayashi, a third-generation master potter, at his studio in Kasama, Ibaraki. 

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A lot of my design ethos and outlook is influenced by these years living close to the land. Everything in the house was crafted by hand from the bowls to the door knobs. Our food came from the garden. Kobayashi-sensei had customers who had been coming back for over 60 years. People formed relationships with the objects, comissioning them for key life events. This attention to detail, value on living and craft, and designing objects with natural materials in symbiosis with the land. 


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I kept a blog during this time, recording my experiences between design and craft. You can read more about on how I met my pottery master

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Trimming bowls with Tatsuki

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Greenware ready for first firing

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Exploring movement in ceramics, defying function

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Greenware ready for first firing

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Planning out glaze tests

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