HARRY’S GLASS JEWELRY

Koto Tsuchiya was trained as a glassblowing artist in Japan and the UK for six years when she was in her 20s. She originally attended prestigious Keio University in Tokyo, but left school in an effort to find what she wanted to pursue in life. It was when she came across glass-making that she became obsessed with the beauty of this unique material. She was determined to become a glassblower and created her own style.

One day, she was moving an industrial workbench and had a serious lumbar spine injury. It was devastating to her, as glassblowing work is physically demanding. But, soon after this incident, Tsuchiya chose to focus on lampworking, which uses a torch/burner to melt and shape the material. The rest, as they say, is history, which we are very happy to help showcase here.

Tsuchiya has been always interested and inspired by beauty of the nature. The typical texture of her works came to be when she was looking at a collection of dried leaves, and their intricate pattern of veins inspired her to re-imagine them in her creations. She started to work on sticks of glass material to create leaf veins. It is a painstaking process that requires extreme concentration. “If I lose focus, I might have to start over from scratch,” she laughs.

Despite her thin, fragile appearance, she has exceptional inner strength and a strong will to pursue her artistic career. Her creations match this.

And why does she call her business Harrys? In Japan, glass was called Ruri or Hari in old days. She picked the sound of Hari for her own brand name. We invite you to explore her amazing work.