An overview of the Terracotta Collection by Reiko Kaneko for SCP, featuring a new wider jug for 2020, specially designed to house flowers.
Like many of us during lockdown, Reiko Kaneko found herself with more time to tend to her garden than ever before. With a newly built garden studio at her north London home and a little more time to experiment, she has found herself wanting to go back to being a “beginner”. Reiko has treated 2020 as a time to relearn things; about ceramics, glazes, construction techniques and about the material strata in general.
For SCP, Reiko has made a small but important addition to her Terracotta range. She has created a new jug version for the collection that is noticeably wider and shorter than the current pitcher version. This has been done with the express intention of holding flowers, because Reiko had noticed that the pitcher version, which is ideal for keeping water and drinks cool at a table, has often been used for this purpose. A wider opening allows for better flower arrangements, simple as that.
“Terracotta can be quite chunky, and tends to be a bit utilitarian looking, so we wanted to bring in that height and the curve, so it looks lighter."
Reiko Kaneko
The whole of the terracotta collection shows a real lightens of touch. Terracotta is an ancient natural material that derives its rich orange red colour from the high iron content of the clay. This collection for SCP comprises the new wider jug, a tall pitcher, a large flat platter, a tumbler, a wine cooler, a biscuit barrel and a large bowl. Finished with an opaque glaze, which makes the vessel watertight, a number of partial and full glaze options are available. Each design is made by hand and is therefore unique.
“Designing with terracotta is literally from the bottom up because it's hand thrown from a lump of clay. I design on 3D programmes, but with a thrown piece I really wanted to work with the slight finger marks and the rings you get when you are throwing it, and also how the body pulls when pulling out the spout, or all the different things that are evidence of it being made by hand.”
Reiko Kaneko
Reiko Kaneko has created an elegant modern range of vessels in a classic material. Tiny variations in form, and the evidence of being made by hand, give these designs an idiosyncratic beauty all their own. Available in a range of glazed, partially glazed and unglazed options. Hand made in Suffolk, England.
Find out more about SCP’s London Design Festival exhibition, One Room Living.
