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We live our lives—on everyday and special occasions—with craft objects. Just think of your favorite tea cup. Blowing on the steam rising from it as you sip your tea is soothing, and the cup’s familiar texture helps create a relaxing moment. It’s such a comfortable object, part of your habitual environment. But that cup, which has become so familiar, so taken for granted, has gone through a process of being heated to a temperature tens of times hotter than the tea you pour into it. And being fired in the kiln and the forming process that proceeded it involved resisting pressure and at the same time incorporating that force in the cup’s body. Now think about picking up that cup, conscious of the heat and pressure that have formed it. You may see the cup you thought you knew so well somewhat differently.

When we visit the places where craft objects are made, we realize that how heat and pressure are applied is often decisive. Take the color called “Japan blue,” the blue produced through indigo dyeing, for example. It results from the use of sukumo, a dye made of fermented indigo leaves. That fermentation involves heat: the fermentation vat will stay at 70 degrees centigrade or even hotter. And the heat is joined by pressure: countless designs can be produced by binding, stitching, folding, twisting, or compressing part of the fabric before placing it in the dye vat. That pressure-based dyeing method, known as shiborizome, shaped-resist dyeing or tie-dyeing, is an ancient technique that can be traced back to examples from the eighth century in the Shōsōin Treasure House.

Or consider the color and luster of a light yet sturdy white bamboo basket. The bamboo’s oils were extracted by simmering it or toasting it over a flame. Then the bamboo was exposed to sunlight so that its color changed from green to white. Moreover, the strips of bamboo, with their vital flexibility, were pressed, bent, and woven together so that they immobilize each other with their competing power to spring back into their original shapes. This space, the container we know as a basket, was created through that combination of heat and pressure.

Indifferent in the presence of these objects? Not now—wow, they are dramatic! Heat and pressure are our starting points for an intense but very cool look at crafts.