Some Japanese words carry more weight than their English translations can hold. Nagare is one of them.
It means flow—but not just water or motion. It’s how things move on their own. How plans shift. How something begins in one place and ends somewhere else, without force, without a plan. It’s the sense that life unfolds, whether or not you’re steering. That things will end up where they’re meant to.
This past week felt like that.
The store in London where my ashtrays are stocked let me know: the first one sold. It was exciting to hear.
Selling my work has never really been about money. But there’s something grounding about a stranger choosing something you made—something you’ve been working toward, and now it’s happened.
And like most things, it came about gradually. One step leading to the next. Nothing rushed, nothing expected.
I was first commissioned to make ashtrays for a pub here in Japan. I started sculpting small scenes—ashtrays that already looked used. I was thinking of the ones you’d find outside a London pub: filled with cigarette butts, ash settled before the wind arrives. That in-between moment. A solitary smoke. Sometimes before the start of a very fun chat.
Never a lonely smoke.
They were made from reddish clay sourced in Mie Prefecture, glazed in peach. The results surprised me—soft pink alongside rich brown, white speckles where the glaze separated. Each piece felt like a memory. Something already lived. And for those who don’t smoke, a different kind of memory.
I loved how they turned out, and noticed others did too. A few locals bought them in Japan. Then friends visited from London. One, who runs a shop for independent designers, asked to stock some.
That first physical sale marked something. The feeling that the work is beginning to make its own way.
So—an unplanned sidestep. The pieces have found a place here in Japan, and now they’re starting to land in London too. The plan is to visit when I can, restock, and let the rest unfold.
Ashtrays are now available at the lovely Alta Store in Soho, London. If you’re nearby, drop in—they carry a beautiful mix of work from independent designers and artists around the world.
Alta Store is an experimental retail space in the heart of Soho, founded and run by five designers: SBA, Matilda Little, This Belongs To, Timna Weber, and Elif. Known for its seasonless, one-of-a-kind selection of emerging work.
Some behind-the-scenes photos from making the ashtrays, and experimenting with a different clay and other colours below.
Thanks for reading x