New Gentle Pottery brings its Japanese designs to Denmark in a harmonious craft change

Regardless of the bodily distance, Danish and Japanese design share many similarities. Sincere, top quality supplies are favoured over the newest bling and easy is at all times higher. That is true for each PP Møbler, one of many stalwarts of Danish furnishings, and the Japanese lighting producer New Gentle Pottery. Beginning Tuesday the twenty second October, New Gentle Pottery will likely be showcasing its lights alongside PP’s Furnishings at PP’s flagship retailer in Copenhagen. This marks the primary time New Gentle Pottery’s lamps are proven exterior of Japan and is a novel alternative to expertise their lamps first hand.

New Gentle Pottery arrives in Denmark

When New Gentle Pottery determined to check the waters exterior of the Japanese archipelago, they instantly set their eyes on Denmark.

‘I’ve been a fan of Danish and Scandinavian design endlessly. By way of lights, there are such a lot of great manufacturers from Denmark, that I used to be eager to see how our lights can be acquired right here,’ Hiroyuki Nagatomi, one of many two designers behind the model, explains whereas he’s organising the exhibition.

Katja Kejser Pedersen, artistic director of PP Møbler, explains the reasoning behind opening the showroom for New Gentle Pottery: ‘I may see immediately that the lamps had been a gorgeous match to the PP assortment. Made in real supplies with good consideration to all the main points and a robust give attention to good craftsmanship.’

The exhibition has been designed by Copenhagen based mostly Miki Morita and Suguru Kobayashi from Mok Architects. They’ve commissioned washi artist Wataru Hatano to do a collection of paper panels in three totally different colors that act each as house dividers and backdrops for the lamps. The tough texture and earth-like colors of the panels add distinction to the gorgeous end of each the furnishings and the lamps.

There’s additionally a brief film projected on a hand-crafted paper display that exhibits the method of how among the lamps are made. All New Gentle Pottery’s lamps are handmade in small factories round Japan, every specialising in a novel materials or course of. The strong brass lamps, such because the Bullet collection, are made in Toyama by the corporate Nousaku, which has been working in brass and copper for greater than 100 years. Every lamp is casted utilizing sand moulds after which completed by CNC. A few of them are additional colored to a burnt black by Iromasa, one other firm additionally based mostly in Toyama. The end is achieved by making use of and heating conventional Japanese lacquer to the bought brass and is a novel end from the area.

The exhibition options about half of New Gentle Pottery’s portfolio with a number of model new lamps on show. Out there each in pendant or wall/ceiling lamp the SOL collection is a refreshing tackle a conventional Japanese paper lantern. Each the form (Nagatomi was impressed by the normal Japanese spinning high for the tapered design of each the pendant and the wall/ceiling lamps) and the pairing of the standard paper with high-quality brass fittings offers the lamps a contemporary expression not likely seen earlier than in paper.

There’s additionally a brand new lamp made from bent beech veneer referred to as Moth. “I’m an enormous fan of the butterfly stool by Sori Yanagi, and this was meant as a type of tribute to him and the stool, therefore the identify.” Nagatomi explains. The construction is straightforward (because the butterfly stool) with three equivalent wood elements joined collectively on the edges with six brass bolts.

The trendy and easy design of New Gentle Pottery’s lamps is a gorgeous match for PP Møbler’s timeless furnishings. And just like the furnishings, it’s the high quality of the craftsmanship that actually makes the design come alive.