Japanese jeweler Miki Asai takes inspiration from intangible natural phenomena like shadow and light. Her aesthetics and concept are strongly based on the Japanese tradition of wabi-sabi, which finds beauty in impermanence, imperfection, and ephemerality. She aims to create jewelry that captures and preserves momentary beauty as a way of possessing the fragments of the fleeting world. Her work explores where concept meets materiality: a crushed eggshell evokes a moment frozen in time; a seashell is cut into tiny iridescent chips that shimmer; a stone-like surface is made from powdered minerals. By destroying and reconstructing these materials, she creates jewelry in a way akin to painting, often bringing her own perspective to traditional Japanese techniques and materials like lacquer, pearls, and pigments.
