This Japanese Artist Uses Soft Clay To Carve Out Hyper-Realistic Clothing And Accessories (36 Pics)

Japanese sculptor Masami Yamamoto uses soft clay to carve stunning garments. From socks to shirts and underwear—her creations appear astonishingly real and are on display in exhibitions. Masami’s creations are often based on intimate clothing as a means of potentially creating portraits of the owners of the said items. 

While there is an impressive dedication to realism—Yamamoto is careful to detail each delicate fold of the clothing as she doesn’t use any pre-made molds for her sculptures. Instead, Masami studies each reference making sure to recreate it as closely as possible.

More info: yamamotomasami.com | Instagram

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Bored Panda reached out to Masami Yamamoto to find out a little bit more.

“My works are created by hand sculpting from scratch, this means that I sculpt my works from a mass of soft ceramic clay. Then I place them in an oven for high-temperature cooking."

Masami also shared some more of her ideas with us.

I think that ceramic materials match our human existence very well through their strong presence and brittleness.

When it comes to the raw material of ceramic and the creation process, this series of pieces uses a ceramic material as a memory medium."

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The artist also told us a little bit more about the whole process itself.

"From the observation of old clothes or objects, I try to memorize the spirit of the owner and their traces. By using the plasticity of clay, I try to reproduce the softness of clothes. Through the firing process, the clay is hardened and keeps the image of the object. It becomes a memory medium."

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"I have the feeling that the presence of the previous owner and my time are both mixed together. When it comes to the objects made in ceramic, I feel them like poetic memories of our absolute loneliness and the joys and sorrows of our daily life."

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Yamamoto's works have been featured in a lot of art galleries as the artist held a lot of exhibitions displaying her work over the years. The talented artist has also been awarded numerous scholarships and art prizes by places such as the Scholarship of Rotary Foundation, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Spiral Independent Creators Festival.

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