Sakai Mika is a Japanese ceramic artist, practicing the ancient Japanese technique of Nerikomi.  It is a style of pottery in which the clay is tinted, layered in precise ways, and sliced to form a slab which is pressed into or onto a mold.  The work’s color and decoration are created by the patterned clay rather than by a glaze or surface technique.The completed pottery will have the same pattern on its exterior and its interior.

The artist began her career in the Arts by studying fashion in Tokyo.  After she graduated she took her first ceramics course then went on to apprentice for two years under one of Japan’s foremost practitioners of Nerikomi.  She has since become one of the best Nerikomi potters in Japan. 

More of her work can be found on her blog, Facebook and Instagram.

Images:  Courtesy of Sakai Mika.