Interview // Kana Umeda

The artist has always been attracted by the transparency of glass and thrives to realize what’s invisible with the light and the shadow the material creates.

After several years of experiences in making sculptures, Kana started to learn lamp(torch)working technique and quickly realized her interests in making glass jewellery based on inspirations from natural phenomena, particularly those with water. The light and the shadow that play with the vision introducing beautiful distortion of what things really are create a physical and magical illusion especially when worn as a jewellery piece. She also tries not to create “too much” while creating a natural effect that human can perceive.





What are your life essentials/ what do you carry with you all the time?

I carry a tiny notebook, a pen I like, and an earring on one of the ears, mostly on the left without which I’d feel nude.


Who was your most previous text/call to and what about?

I exchange messages the most with my husband and on the telephone, we don’t talk much about important stuff, as we both work at home and we talk a lot in person while eating breakfast, lunch and dinner! The most important things we exchange on the phones are photos of our cat.


 


Last meal you would eat?

The real sushi in Japan, not the ones we find in Europe…
 

Most influential person in your life?

My mother who’s always been my role model in life, my husband, and some close friends with whom I learned a lot


Tried and true methods against creative block?

Leave it completely for some time, even some months and getting back to it with a completely different mode and mood.





 
 What are some inspiration things, designs, artists, music, sites that you find yourself re-visiting often?

All the tiny things that happen in daily life could be exciting when you look at it with a fresh eye. I am always attracted by behaviors of water in different forms like rain, puddle, river or sea. I’m inspired by artists who try to capture the moment that exists but disappear immediately such as Olafar Eliasson, Fumiko Nakatani.

 
If you could have 3 people for dinner, dead or alive, who would you invite?

Yoko Ono, Oliver Sax, Stephen King

"I travel and I dream."








  
    Favorite cities? Why? 
                            
I like Brussels where there is a total ambiguity in terms of languages, cultures or people: everything is mixed while I also like Kanazawa, a tiny city in Japan where I used to live for some years where there are little bit of everything necessary to enjoy life, the culture, the food, the great natures (mountains, rivers, the sea etc) but not much of stress!


Favorite drinks?

Belgian beers, Chinese tea, French wine 
 

Likes/dislikes?

I love cats and like other animals sometimes more than people. I learn a lot from the philosophical existence in a form of a cat. Be independent, be always yourself, care what you should care the most etc. etc…
I also like reading, hearing funny stories, imagining things like materials that don’t exist (yet!).




SEE HER CREATIONS : Bangle Square, Ring Sphere, Ring.