Homes and Gardens

Shin Azumi is a Japanese designer who came to London in 1992 and studied industrial design at the Royal College of Art, from which he graduated in 1995. Since then, his studio has designed many acclaimed products in ceramic, metal and wood, often with a touch of the unexpected.

His award-winning tea set (designed for the Yauatcha restaurant in London's Soho) takes traditional Japanese shapes, materials and manufacturing techniques and gives them a contemporary, sophisticated look for an international market. The teapot is made from a fine-grained clay found in Tokoname in Japan. As this clay does not need glazing, its surface remains ultra-smooth, making it matt and silky to the touch. The tea set includes two cups that are made from the same clay, but glazed inside. The teapot is lined with a band of mesh (known as obi-ami in Japanese), which lets the tea leaves circulate freely in hot water and reach their full flavour, without clogging the spout. The tray and saucers are made using another Japanese technique, called bunako, based on the traditional technique, incorporated in Japanese lacquerware, of coiling and gluing together thin strips of beechwood like a roll of ribbon to make a flat surface which is then shaped by hand.

The attractive effect is like the rings of a tree, and in the tea set itself there is a pleasing contrast between wood and ceramic. “I wanted to use authentic, highly developed Japanese craft techniques,” says Shin. “At the same time I wanted to make a sophisticated, cosmopolitan and functional product with a timeless beauty.”