Junichi Tanada
Profile
Putting our thoughts into the glass
Iriya Etching Artist
From Northern part of Japan to the world of glass.
Mr. Tanada, an expert in etching, was born in Hokkaido. Influenced by his father, who often drew pictures at home, Mr. Tanada himself liked painting, and art was his favorite subject. It was an art teacher who led him to the path of glass. “There is someone who does something interesting in Tokyo.” this is how the teacher introduced Mr. Yoshimasa Okamoto, the first president of Glasswork Brain, who is his relative to him. As soon as he told him he was interested, Mr. Okamoto visited Mr. Tanada’s high school. During the interview, I started preparing a dormitory for him, and in no time, it was decided that he would join Glasswork Brain.
“After five years of training, I will go back to Hokkaido.” that’s how 18-year-old Mr. Tanada at the time was thinking. However, he would continue to work for more than 30 years.
To improve
etching technology
In the 1990s, when Mr. Tanada joined the company, the Glass Work Brain was divided into two tasks: glass mass production and delicate glass processing.
Mr. Tanada, who was working with the material glass for the first time, was in charge of mass production for about 10 years. However, with the passage of time, mass production shipments decreased year by year, and inevitably he came to be in charge of processing technology. Among them, he went heart and soul to “sandblast etching”.
Etching is more like a work of art than a building material, and it is perfect for him, who was originally good at art. Although it is now possible to work on a computer, at the time, sketches were drawn by hand using tracing paper, one by one. After the rough sketch, detailed carving work awaited him which is the same process as now. It was hard work to be patient and delicate, but Mr. Tanada was fascinated by etching and greatly improved his technical skills.
Put our hearts and give life into works
“Having a three-dimensional structure in mind” is an essential point for etching, says Mr. Tanada.
In the case of flowers, realistic three-dimensional representations can not be created unless the composition of each petal is known. In order to conjure up the three-dimensional structure of the motif in his mind, the young Mr. Tanada frequently visited bookstores, looking at a wide variety of materials and making sketches. Currently, he uses image searches on the Internet, but he does not neglect efforts to improve his image, such as going to see figurines of characters as well as the real thing itself.
He says that it is important to have an image of the finished product at the rough sketch stage. A realistic three-dimensional effect is expressed in a glass of just a few millimeters. It is a meticulous work in which a difference of only 0.1 mm in depth makes a big difference. While working on various works, he noticed that there are a great many customers who choose glass etching to preserve their memories.
The beautiful and delicate glass would be perfect for enclosing their precious memories. There is no single work that can be easily produced. Everything was made over a long period of time untiringly. Mr. Tanada puts his heart and soul into his creations, valuing the feelings of his clients.
Junichi Tanada, Putting our thoughts into the glass