WFT Extra 004: Jaime Hayon + Kutani

Awesome vases by Jaime Hayon collaborating with a Japanese traditional Kutani potter (official website here).  Recently, a lot of designers have been introducing new ways of using traditional craft techniques.  They keep the same high quality as the original artifacts yet create completely different aspects and become very avant-garde objects with a simple twist in shapes, patterns, colors, etc.

The traditional characteristics of Kutani pottery is to draw lines with blue/navy color called "GOSU" first and add thick paint called "GOSAI" (5 colors) over it.  The 5 colors are red, yellow, green, purple, and navy.  This Hayon's series don't have the traditional colorfulness of Kutani but have very bold contrast of red, blue and white that is a very traditional Japanese color scheme.  With striking forms and modified traditional patterns, he truly created the right balance of "west meets east" style.