Handcrafted porcelain Sea Urchin Container by award winning ceramics designer, Ikuko Iwamoto. Ikuko looks to microscopic organisms and the tiniest of sea creatures for her inspiration. Ikuko uses slip-casting technique, and then decorations are applied later on. They are often with dots to give works a tactile texture and in her more sculptural pieces spikes are frequently used to express fragility.

Ikuko’s work has an uncompromising purity that is captivating. She describes her work as, “a world of intricacy and detail, of mathematical pattern and organic chaos, of beauty and repulsion.”

Ikuko has won numerous awards including the Ceramic Review Prize for Innovation at Ceramic Art London. Her work is in several public collections including the V&A and Manchester Art Gallery. In 2019 Ikuko won the Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize, developed to celebrate excellence in contemporary ceramics.