Yuko Ikeda 池田優子 is a self-taught ceramicist based in Osaka, Japan, whose work moves between vessel and object, ceramic and painting. Born in Osaka in 1973, she studied graphic design at Platt College in San Diego before returning to Japan and teaching herself ceramics entirely on her own terms.

Her process is deliberate and intuitive in equal measure. When forming a piece, particularly the rim, she trusts what her hands feel rather than directing them toward a predetermined shape. Glazing works the same way: layers applied with a brush, surfaces divided into sections, color laid down at random. The result feels closer to painting than ceramics.

Her forms draw from the sea: tidal movement, coral texture, the particular way light moves across water at different hours. Blues run deep and uneven. Whites carry warmth. In recent years she has divided her time between Osaka and a second studio in coastal Tokushima, where her family surfs and the tide shapes daily life. She approached tea ceramics with the same openness, spending years before feeling ready to work within that tradition. The chawan and tea objects she makes now are, in her words, art pieces you can actually use.