“In the last year, Narumi really stepped into a new technique and made it into her own and part of her art, in such a way that even her fans like me who loved her Nerikomi pieces most, have grown to love what she is capable of doing with water etching. She is an amazing artist, and I have no doubt that she is capable of accomplishing whatever challenge she throws herself into.” — Isac, 2020“Narumi is the Queen of Details.” — Yami, 2019
“This is absolutely one of the best pieces of Nerikomi I have seen. —KarenNerikomi
Nerikomi (means “kneading into”) is a traditional Japanese technique of creating patterns with coloured clay. Slabs of different coloured clay are stacked, rolled, folded into logs and those logs (just like candy canes) are sliced and arranged into a slab to form a vessel. Narumi creates extremely intricate and colourful Nerikomi pieces in which she combines self mixed porcelain of 20-200 different colours and hues, and maintains her precise design details without distortion which requires significant skills. She creates uniquely colourful designs with movements. She designs and hand draws her patterns for each individual piece with different forms with careful and thorough planning. Planning the design, its Nerikomi components, and coulours often take her weeks and the entire creation process often takes months.
Water Etching
Narumi took on water etching recently in 2019. Her interest in textures she has not yet explored in her Nerikomi work led her this technique. Water etching technique is done by applying shellac resist on green ware surfaces then wiping away the clay by a wet sponge where no resist is applied. Shellac is then burnt off during the bisque firing. Narumi creates multiple layers of etched surfaces with different depths and achieves very unique 3D effects with full of life and movement. It is extremely difficult to acquire small precise details in multiple layers. She offers a teaching manual for water etching.
