Aya Iwata

Aya Iwata is a Japanese silversmith and enamel artist. In her practice, vessels are endowed with a spiritual function beyond their physical utility; they are regarded as mediators between reality and imagination, and between the future and memory. Her works attend to people’s inner worlds and seek to create vessels that can serve as containers for emotion and belief.

Iwata was born in Tokyo and grew up in a family environment immersed in art and education, which cultivated her sensitivity to materials and craft from an early age. Her practice is known for its meticulous combination of materials, particularly her skill in integrating fine silver, enamel, and glass into cohesive works. These pieces demonstrate a solid foundation in craftsmanship while also possessing rich poetic resonance. Her works have been widely exhibited across Asia and Europe and have received sustained attention within the fields of contemporary enamel and metal art.

Iwata refers to her vessels as “Cloud Houses” (Kumo no Ie), envisioning them as spaces in which the souls of herself and her loved ones may reside. In terms of technique, she combines ronde-bosse with pâte de verre to produce her works. The semi-translucent quality of the glass forms a subtle dialogue with the deep surfaces of the silver-based enamel. Here, the cloud functions both as a natural image and as an emotional metaphor, carrying projections of memory, longing, and remembrance.

Aya Iwata’s Cloud Houses seek to explore a gentler understanding of life and death through the form of the vessel, allowing the container space to become a dwelling for emotion and belief. Remembrance of loved ones and imaginings of the soul’s existence continue within these vessels in another, tender form. Through this restrained and poetic expression, the vessel becomes a spiritual abode, enabling craft to attain a sense of transcendence beyond the material itself.