Ito Makoto, who had acquired glass production skills while working at a company specializing in crystal glass, quit his job in 1971 and set up his own small melting furnace at home. In the mid-1970s, he visited the studios of European and American glass artists and was greatly influenced by their work. Ito says his work expresses “an interest in human beings that occupies his mind but is hard to pin down.” This work is part of a series of portraits, and while it evokes the loneliness of city life, it also has touches of humor. To create the human form he has not used a mold, but instead wound molten glass around a rod. Exquisite light effects have been created through sandblasting, which uses jets of sand to create patterns, and finishing with sandpaper.
(HASEGAWA Tamao)
Ito Makoto, who had acquired glass production skills while working at a company specializing in crystal glass, quit his job in 1971 and set up his own small melting furnace at home. In the mid-1970s, he visited the studios of European and American glass artists and was greatly influenced by their work. Ito says his work expresses “an interest in human beings that occupies his mind but is hard to pin down.” This work is part of a series of portraits, and while it evokes the loneliness of city life, it also has touches of humor. To create the human form he has not used a mold, but instead wound molten glass around a rod. Exquisite light effects have been created through sandblasting, which uses jets of sand to create patterns, and finishing with sandpaper.
(HASEGAWA Tamao)