Kataginu lightsSuzusan - Craft x Tech2026

Bethan Laura Wood’s collaboration with SUZUSAN explores Arimatsu Narumi Shibori as a meeting point between slow craft and contemporary design. Drawn to the “magic” of tying and binding, Wood responds to the technique’s complex textures and shifting patterns, working directly with three-dimensional folding. Her concept embraces the unpredictability created when two dyes interact, producing blurred transitions that capture the “living” quality of the die responding to placement and manipulation. In dialogue with Hiroyuki Murase, the project connects heritage knowledge with new applications, extending shibori beyond garments into the domestic environment. Respecting the process, traces of stitching and folding are intentionally retained, revealing each stage of making. The resulting collection of hanging, table and floor lamps transforms dyed kataginu ( traditional Japanese sleeveless vest with exaggerated, stiffened shoulders) inspired patterns into luminous volumes.

About Craft x Tech
Craft x Tech is an experimental and artistic project that explores how aesthetic sensibilities embedded in Japanese craft can be reimagined through a thoughtful and skillful creative process—where “craft” and “tech” engage in a meaningful dialogue.

In collaboration with traditional craft communities across Japan — including those specializing in lacquer, metal, woodworking, ceramics, washi paper, and textiles — we work closely with both Japanese and international artists and designers. Together, we create new art pieces that reinterpret and revitalize the world of craft by layering contemporary perspectives and questions onto its inherent temporality, ecological connectedness, and inherited wisdom.

What we now call “traditional crafts” are, in fact, the result of centuries of continual innovation. The sensibilities and aesthetics that flow through Japanese culture have consistently been shaped and expressed through the tools and technologies of each era. Yet as Japan’s lifestyle has modernized, craft has gradually been distanced from daily life — reduced to symbols of “tradition” or “Japaneseness.” In this context, we seek to reengage with the aesthetic essence of craft and give it new form through a contemporary lens.

“Craft” is not simply the act of making; it is the embodiment of aesthetic sensibility, embedded in the dialogue between hand and material. “Tech,” in turn, is the vessel of thought through which that sensibility takes tangible shape. Through this project, we aim to cast light once again on the hidden soul of craft, and pursue a new form of art that can be carried forward into the future.

Commissioning body Craft x Tech
Founder, Creative Director – Hideki Yoshimoto
Curatorial Director – Maria Cristina Didero

Artisan Partner – SUZUSAN
Fabrication:
Hand-dyed cotton & powder coated steel with electrical parts.