Motoko Wakana

Motoko was born in 1962 in Tokyo. She graduated from Saitama University, and trained at the Takasaki College of Art. From 1993, Motoko spent six years working at the Utatsuama Craft Workshop and the Oshigahara Workshop, and then came to England in 1999.

She has worked with John Bedding, Clive Bowen and Mary Wondrausch, and has been widely exhibited.

Motoko’s work is inspired by culture and nature in Japan, particularly by ‘feeling the seasons in everyday life’ such as experiencing changes in the seasons, the smells from flowers, the colour of the sky, clouds, plant buds, vegetables or the taste of fruit.

Her distinctive work is characterised by the use of light and dark clays and her original application of slip in relief patterns. She makes the form by throwing or slab-building with dark clay, decorates with white slip, applies ash glaze, and then reduction-fires with charcoal.