ABOUT THE ARTIST

As a child growing up in a village of craftspeople, on an island in the western region of Japan, Reiko Ishiyama was deeply impressed by the forges, sounds and smells of the blacksmiths shops. Today she forges her own work, hammering metal sheets, coaxing them into three dimensional forms. She hammers to shape the work and to toughen it, to texture and harden the metal so that it holds the forms she creates.

“Growing up I observed the kimono as a geometric, flat, folded item. When the kimono is unfolded and draped on the human body, what transforms the fabric into a dynamic and abstract shape is the obi, or sash. When the obi is released, the kimono again regains its flatness.

Everything with my work begins with a flat sheet of metal. Even though I release metal into tensile shapes it never loses that original sense of birth from a flat world. I’m not interested in massive, permanent structure. I put layers together to hold space, in between, underneath, never enclosed, never shielded. If the work is successful it creates an eddy or pocket of space. It’s a way to cup the work in its own temporary moment.”

Ishiyama moved to New York in 1980 and lives there still.

AWARDS

Best of Media, Craft Boston, Boston, MA

2002  Honorable Mention, Society of North American Goldsmiths, American Craft  Council Show, Baltimore, MD

American Craft Council Award of Excellence, Baltimore, MD

PUBLICATIONS

Metalsmith, Amercian Craft. New York Times, Vogue, Cosmopolitan

The Art of Jewelry Design, Deborah Krupenia, Rockport Press 1997

Art Jewelry Today, Dona Z Meilach, A Schiffer Publishing, 2003

500 Bracelets, Marjorie Simon, A Lark Jewelry Book, 2005