Lying Baby With Butterfly, Cast Glass Sculpture, 2019

Koichi Matsufuji  

Koichi Matsufuji was born in Nagasaki in 1973. He studied glasswork at Aichi University of Education from 1991 and after graduating he went to U.S. by the support of a Pola Art Foundation Researcher Overseas Grant. He studied sculpture at Illinois State University, School of Art from 1998 and completed his master's in 2001. He is currently living and working as an artist based in Toyama, Japan.

The surface of his most representative work, the Baby Series, is finished with ground glass. Depending on the way the light shines, the glass babies in these works are as beautiful as jewels. Koichi uses the lost-wax kiln casting glass technique. First, he makes the original form of the babies in wax, pours it in refractory plaster to create a mold and fills the mold with glass in the electric kiln. Koichi melts it at a high temperature of 900°C and lets it cool slowly over a number of days. He says that his works get a soul during the time they spend in the kiln as he takes the glass out of the kiln and carefully polishes it.  He then inserts the babies' eyes for the finishing touch.