Customer Reviews

Contemporary Japanese Jewelry

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This book is a catalogue of jewelry featured in an exhibition that toured the United Kingdom accompanying the "Japan 2001" festival. The pictures of personal ornamentation in this book will test how you define `jewelry.' Simplicity is thematic, giving the viewer an impression of movement in the swoops and curves shaping each piece. For example, ear ornaments do not hang from the earlobe but, instead, are shaped to the ear's interior, like a hearing aide, with a hole made for sounds to enter.

Teruo Akatsu makes beads from dust, threading them onto stainless steel wire. I surely have a surplus of this raw material at my home. (You might recall that our San Antonio artist Sherry Fotopoulos has used dryer lint to create sculptures.)

Tomomi Arata uses sand, enamel, silver, and gemstones to create rings that looks like they've been lost in an ancient shipwreck.

Hiromasa Hashimoto strings liquid silver bugle beads on silicone cord to make a geometric necklace. Yuta Hataya fashions bracelets checkered by brass and silver.

Mikiko Minewaki is the ultimate recycler, making rings from the ends of cigarette lighters and colored plastics.

The above examples show just a few unusual materials used by these inventive artists, but you must see the book to know how the materials are rendered into spectacular jewelry ornaments.