Michiko Shimada

Michiko Shimada’s work is elegant and minimalist, an abiding vessel for an emphatic bouquet or an art object in its own right. Despite their crisp appearance, each slip-cast piece is created by hand, not machine. “Every process is carried out by hand from the model and mold-making to the finished pieces,” says Shimada, a graduate of the Parsons School of Design who was born in Japan but is now based in Brooklyn. “I focus on preserving the sharp look by paying extra attention to edges and straight lines of the profiles. I think one of their charms comes from the right amount of crispness.” For evidence of just how crisp those lines can be, see the Kado vase — which also shows off a matte glaze she developed specifically for this vase and the Buranchi. “I was aiming for a soft matte texture like beach pebbles or sugar glaze, and achieving the perfect texture was challenging, since the glazes were sensitive to the firing temperature,” she says. “With several trials — and errors — I was able to get the result.”