OBAMA, Fukui -- Glassware made from mackerel bones, oyster shells and other waste sea materials has been prototyped as a beautiful new vessel for promoting recycling as well as the city of Obama, in Fukui Prefecture.
The prototypes are the handiwork of glass artist Keiko Takeda, 50, who plans to begin selling her creations as "Obama glass" from January next year.
After leaving her job at the Obama city office, Takeda embarked on a second career as a glassmaker. The Obama native honed her glassmaking skills at a workshop specializing in Ryuku glass, a traditional craft from Okinawa Prefecture. She opened her own glass studio, KEiS-an, in the Fukutani neighborhood of Obama in July 2008.
Since September 2019, Takeda had been conducting experiments at the Industrial Technology Center of Fukui Prefecture, in search of a recipe for glass made from some unorthodox materials, including crushed bones from the Obama yopparai mackerel (a local brand of fish raised on a diet mixed with sake lees), shells from oysters cultivated in Obama Bay, and sand from the mouth of the river that feeds into the bay.
It took over 100 attempts, but she finally found the right combination of materials that, when melted at temperatures of about 1,400 C, produced the perfect seafoam green color to evoke the shores of Obama.
So far, Takeda has applied the technique to make a collection of plates, wind chimes and earrings, with distinctive patterns drawn using deer bones. The artist said she also plans to make necklaces and key chains in the future.
"Her glassware has a cool and refreshing quality that's ideal for plating food in the summer," said Sukehiko Morishita, 78, who runs a guest house in the city, and supplies Takeda with mackerel bones for her work. "I want to use her glassware in my guest house."
Takeda intends to continue refining her Obama glass as a representative of its namesake city.
"In the future, I would like to achieve a slightly more bluish color," Takeda said. "I hope that using local materials will help promote Obama."
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