Three small sculptures from the Tansa miniatures exhibition

 

These three miniatures were all inspired by a textile research trip to Japan and form part of an exhibition at the Crafts Study Centre in Farnham. Suzumi Noda’s ‘Korizato Rock Candy’ references a quote from the Japanese writer Ryunosuke Akutagawa comparing the French author Maupassant to ice and rock candy. The Japanese kanji characters for korizato are ice, sand and sugar and korizato is a rock crystal sugar candy known as Rock Candy.

‘Facets’ by Reiko Sudo www.nuno.com is inspired by the lapidary finishing of gemstones. It shows the warps and wefts of fabric combining to determine how light reflects, refracts or is absorbed in the same way as the faceting and polishing of gemstones.

‘Inversion’ by Beverly Ayling-Smith www.beverlyaylingsmith.com was informed by a visit to the Kanazawa Yasue Gold Leaf Museum where we saw bundles of gold leaf papers wrapped with leather. In this piece Beverly wraps thin sheets of lead in paper embellished with gold leaf inverting the idea of the wrapping being less valuable than the contents.

There’s still time to see the exhibition ‘Tansa – Japanese threads of influence’ which runs until 26 March at the Crafts Study Centre, Farnham, and then travels to Gallery Gallery in Kyoto.