Meet Eiko Emori, Designer Glass Studio
Medium: Pâte-de-verre glass
How long have you been creating? I started taking pâte-de-verre classes at Sanko glass factory in an area of Tokyo full of glass factories, in the early 1990s. My degrees and honours are: National Diploma in Design (United Kingdom), Master of Fine Arts (Yale University), Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, Fellow of Graphic Designers of Canada.
What inspires you to do what you do? I am fascinated with light, colours and translucency of glass that the technique produces.
Artist Statement The phrase, “medium is the message” by Marshall McLuhan, describes what I do well. I am forever pursuing new expressions of colours, lights and texture, as well as the limits of the technique, that are unique to pâte-de-verre glass. It is the challenge that keeps me going, since the technique is known as the most complex of all glass-making methods, probably because of the highest failure rate.