Entering the World of Glass

Hanada: Could you tell me how you started making glassware?

Ai Suzuki : When I was struggling to decide what to do after graduating from high school, I suddenly remembered my parents taking me to Hakuba Village for skiing when I was a child. There was a glass studio nearby, and from the second floor, you could watch the glassmakers work. Remembering how thrilled and excited I was as a child watching that scene, I decided I wanted to try making glass myself and stepped into this world.

Hanada: So it had enough of an impact to shape your path.

Ai Suzuki : It wasn’t like I had particularly good grades in art class, but I decided to take the entrance exam for the glass department at an art university during the summer of my final year in high school. The exam was in October, leaving me with only two months. The preparation was down to the wire. I had never even done sketching before, so I couldn’t even draw a straight line. I took on the challenge while the teacher at the art prep school faced me with reality, saying things like, “You’ll never make it at this rate.”

Hanada: Even so, you passed brilliantly.

Ai Suzuki : I think I just barely made the passing line.

Hanada: How was university life?

Ai Suzuki : On the first day of class, I was first of all shocked by how hot the glass studio was. I had no idea glass was that hot (laughs). If you work quickly, smaller items don’t get that hot, but at the beginning, I couldn’t manage all the steps and worked slowly. As a result, all the tools became too hot to hold, and I felt like, “I can’t do anything…”

Apprenticeship Days…

Hanada: What did you do after graduating from university?

Ai Suzuki : I learned about a private studio at Lake Toya in Hokkaido that worked exclusively with clear glass. During my student years, I didn’t know what I wanted to make or what I should make, and I used to think that using color could somehow express something, so I was surprised at the time. When I went to visit, they ended up letting me stay over to help out with the work as a work experience trial.

The photos had been lovely, but seeing the actual production scene, I thought, “How can they create so freely? This is amazing!” and intuitively decided to work there.

Hanada: It’s wonderful that you decided right away.

Ai Suzuki : Once I graduated and the actual work began, it was grueling. Everyone is kind during that one week of work experience, aren’t they (laughs)? In the first year, combined with the change of environment, I cried every day wanting to go home, but I endured, telling myself, “Let’s stick it out for three years anyway.”

Hanada: What kind of tasks does an assistant start with?

Ai Suzuki : First, making the punty to transfer the blowpipe, but I was so nervous that I couldn’t even make a good punty. At the knocking-off bench, I couldn’t smoothly detach the pieces from the punty, and even if I did, I was too terrified and trembling to put them into the annealing oven, dropping and breaking them.

When putting the finished pieces into the annealing oven, the inside is around 500 degrees, so if you are slow, it is incredibly hot and you get burned. Because I wasn’t used to it and was nervous, everything would go wrong. Well, it was truly a three-year period where I was allowed to learn so many things. Not just technical skills, but also endurance. Including collective responsibility, I was scolded very often (laughs).

Hanada: (Laughs)

Ai Suzuki : After that, I worked at Sarue Glass in Tokyo. My husband (Tsutomu Suzuki), who had originally been a staff member there, came to blow glass once a month as a freelancer.

Hanada: So that is where you met your husband. How was Sarue Glass?

Ai Suzuki : The difference from the private studio at Lake Toya was clear. There were many staff members, and I think their creative stance was very flexible.

Hanada: You learned endurance at your first workplace and flexibility at your second.

Ai Suzuki : I truly learned a great deal.

A Touch of Detail, for Everyday Use…

Hanada: And then you came here to Shizuoka, which is also your husband’s hometown.

Ai Suzuki : It has been ten years. This is a piece I made in the early days, which I keep as a memento. I still make this shape today, but it looks completely different, doesn’t it? It’s a molded ball-footed glass.

Hanada: It has a charming atmosphere.

Ai Suzuki : It used to be quite plump. Since my student days, I have liked stemmed items and made them often, but my husband suggested that the stem might look better if it were a bit thinner and longer. After that, through trial and error, it took ten years to arrive at the current shape. I am grateful to my husband. Stemmed glasses lift your mood just by looking at them or using them, don’t they?

Hanada: Yes, they feel special. What kind of shapes do you admire or like?

Ai Suzuki : I suppose shapes that have a unique touch of detail, like adding a stem or a handle. When I want to incorporate a sense of my own identity, I think it naturally takes this direction. However, since these are fundamentally items to be used, user-friendliness and ease of washing are the absolute prerequisites.

Hanada: What does “user-friendliness” mean to you?

Ai Suzuki : It means “making you want to use it every day.” Whether it’s for drinking water, cold tea, or alcohol, I want my pieces to be the kind of presence where you find yourself quickly reaching for them without them ever being put away in the cupboard.

Continuing the Journey…

Hanada: Looking back on your journey so far, is there anything that stands out in your mind?

Ai Suzuki : Around the time we set up this studio, I kept experiencing nothing but failures; I wanted to make something, but found myself unable to create anything.

Ai Suzuki : I lost track of what I even wanted to make, and even if I did make something, it wasn’t as though I had a place to sell it. Still, I believed I shouldn’t give up and kept going. Even in that situation, my husband calmly went on creating and delivering to his clients. Unable to do anything myself, I was secretly feeling impatient and frustrated all on my own. From there, I managed to keep making things, and I gradually became able to transition from those plump stems and bases to more elegant, slender ones.

As I drew closer to what I had envisioned, I felt that on a technical level, my hard work had finally paid off. Then, at an exhibition somewhere, a customer spoke to me and said, “I’m a fan of your work, Ai.” I was surprised, thinking, “I have fans?” and felt from the bottom of my heart that I was glad to have kept going.

Brushing Up

Hanada: Is there anything you would like to do moving forward?

Ai Suzuki : I would like to refine and remake some of my previous works. For example, I have been making this bowl for two or three years, but I plan to try making a smaller version as a dessert cup. This was also a request from customers. I want to brush up my work by combining customer feedback with my own new ideas.

Hanada: It is exciting for customers to see the tableware evolve through a dialogue with the people who use it.

Ai Suzuki : I think it is wonderful to create pieces together with the user, rather than just making things solely based on my own thoughts. I am filled with gratitude for being able to continue making glass.

The Appeal of Glass

Hanada: Finally, is there anything else you would like to add?

Ai Suzuki : For me, the appeal of glass remains unchanged; it is still “sparkly and beautiful,” and I am constantly captivated by its light and shadows. That’s why I can’t stop. No matter how bad things get, there are many times when I am saved by the light and shadows. I hope that this appeal of the light and shadows of glass reaches the customers as well.

Hanada: Thank you very much.

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