The cutlery rests are by Kagoshima ceramicist Kaori Sasaki and were made at her Nohara-ya kiln.

With a mountain inspired form, they are handy for chopsticks or for sets of cutlery. Using slip, ash, and straw ash glazes the surface decoration has a presence and uniqueness in each iteration.

As handmade items, there are some differences between them.

Each cutlery rest is around 8cm long, and 2cm wide. They weight 45g.

**About the Noharaya Kiln (Kaori Sasaki)**

At her Nohara-ya kiln in the Kagoshima interior, Kaori Sasaki fires ceramics that reflect both her training on the southern island of Okinawa and the ceramic traditions of her home region. In Okinawa she was one of the early disciples of Yoneshi Matsuda of the Kita-gama kiln, which has become a renowned training ground for craft potters. Here she learned a dedication to materials, and techniques such as the dotted pattern work and high footed bowls for which Okinawa’s yachimun ceramics are known. But Kagoshima holds a tradition too that she began to explore on her return. In particular the Kuro-mon (Black Satsuma) lineage that occurred in several strains, such as Ryumonji and Naeshirogawa. These were ceramics used in everyday life, with forms that expressed their region’s history. At Nohara-ya, Sasaki collect materials local to her, such as clay deposits from rivers, and glaze ash from the Sakurajima volcano. Her work is the summation of the influences and skills that inform her ceramic imagination. It expresses too a modern spirit of Kuro-mon, ceramics with beauty and Kagoshiman terroir, that are a pleasure to use.

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