my make believe collection 24 :: mitsuru koga

sea stone "creatures"

note: this was the column that i wrote for poppytalk for 2 years... when she moved URL's she decided to get back to her roots and do most of the posting again [go jan + earl!]. i thought maybe that would be the end of "collecting" for me... but instead when i recently ran across mitsuru koga's  work at tortoise - i had that pang of WANT. 

so here i am again. i'll keep collecting on my own little blog - no schedule - just when the mood strikes me... and with this work OH did the mood strike me. 

small hangers made from one continuous wire

mitsuru koga embodies what i love about japanese aesthetics.

the simplicity

the line

the attention to detail

the precision

cloud cut piece

the complete reverence for materials
the ever so slight sense of humor
the MINIATURE [oh swoon]

cut leaf pieces

ok. so all the above work is charming and lovely 

but... the stone vases. oh the stone vases. these tiny perfect little hollowed out stones. [sandblasted]. with their little spouts. and the HANDMADE flowers/twigs [out of wire] that sit in them. 

yes. my heart pounded. and if had the funds that it would have taken to secure one [really not so much when you think about it, but a lot to just spend in a flash] i would have. some day in the future if i have a small windfall of money i will get one of these. because once you pick them up and hold them... because once you see the box that was made for each one [perfect. wooded. carved foam to gently encase the stone. and the twig comes in a little glass corked bottle. protected too]... you must have one.

oh. and if you read what he says about them. well :

Any person has an aesthetic feeling inside and picking up stones is the way to find a route to such sentiment in mind. Whenever I come across stones, I ask them what processes they went through. Natural object is continually changing under the influence of external world through the years. I follow the long time process adding minimal changes to stones to finish the work. As in the way waves abrade stones I scrape stones with careful attention. I add special care to natural objects with the hope that the artificial process counterpoints naturalness more.   

ok. so it's a bit engrish, but i think perfect actually. i want one of the simple, more gray ones. although eventually a little family of them would be... amazing.