Tomoko Maeda

About Tomoko Maeda — Jewelry Artist / Metalworker

I was born in Sumida Ward, Tokyo, and grew up in Kita Ward.
Not being very good at sports, I found that crafting things at home brought me the greatest joy.

Encounter with Metal

When I was little, I watched closely in my father’s machine factory as steel plates visibly transformed in shape.
I believe that memory planted within me an aspiration to "bring forth form."
The time I spent working with my hands—creating, shaping, finishing—and the sense of achievement when what I imagined emerged became the primal experience of my creative life.
Later, it felt natural to be drawn to the sensation of a heavy, hard metal gradually changing form in my hands as I filed, bent, and cut it.

Pursuing the Path of Fine Arts

A memory that remains vivid even now from my childhood is the time spent drawing, sculpting with clay, folding origami—those hours of creating.
I don’t remember much else, so I think from that time on “making things” felt like a natural act for me.
By the time of high school entrance exams, my desire to build a life through art was clear.
However, my parents strongly opposed enrolling in an art high school, so I entered a general curriculum.
Still, unable to give it up, in my second year I asked to attend a preparatory school for art university.
My father remained hesitant until the end, but my mother became my ally and my request was finally accepted.
When I first entered the prep school, I felt like I had found my “place.”
Yet soon I learned how harsh that world could be.
Days of discouragement when I felt the gap in skill were many, but by believing “this is what I love, this is all I have” and continuing on, a path opened.
Eventually I had the opportunity to enroll at Tokyo University of the Arts.
As I struck, filed, and polished metal sheets, I aligned my will with the material’s will.
There are times it doesn’t go as I envisage, but when I move my hands listening to the material’s breath, there are moments when the metal seems to whisper, “I can move now.”
That sense of “aligning breath with the material” is the core of my practice today.

Trajectory of My Creation

After graduating I joined a major manufacturer where I was responsible for watch design.
The world of timepieces—where precision mechanism and shaping blend—was a task of designing “time itself” as form.
What I learned there—the coexistence of function and poetry—has deeply influenced my later jewelry making.
After launching my independent practice, I continued to grapple with the question, “Why do people feel the desire to adorn themselves?”
Jewelry, I believe, is not mere decoration. It resonates with the wearer’s inner, quiet energy—
and I create jewelry precisely to give form to that energy.
As an artist, I center my work on the “unconscious desire to wear,” and I continue to explore the formless things that lie deep within people’s emotions and memories.
My works are not meant to be simply viewed but to be felt.
I believe that the subtle flicker and space within them quietly move the heart.
As a craftsperson, I pay respect to traditional Japanese metal techniques such as niiro (patination) and colored metals.
I finish each step by hand, valuing the “variance of human touch” that cannot come from mechanical precision.
Not over-polishing, not over-filing, I keep listening to the voice of the metal, continuing to bring out its natural expression.
At the root of my work lies a conviction in “the power within stillness.”
It is that stillness which awakens the unconscious impulse for a person to feel they want to wear jewelry.
Believing this, I face metal each day.

About the Works

My works are divided into several collections, each organized by theme and intent of creation.

• Tomoko Maeda — Experimental contemporary jewelry where thought and sensibility meet via my work as an art-jewelry creator.

• KELEN — A jewelry line that takes rigorous care of philosophy, materials, and technique to give shape to the strength within stillness; divided into several theme-based sub-lines.

  • Asha — A series that re-interprets the prayer and aesthetics found in traditional Japanese and global motifs, translated into modern form.

  • CROQUIS — An art-jewelry line that captures the moment when sensibility moves—as if sketching form into shape.

  • Bespoke — Made-to-order jewelry that weaves a story through dialogue with the wearer.
    Each collection is an irreplaceable world for me.

Credentials

1992 — Graduated Tokyo University of the Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Crafts (Metalwork)
1992 — Joined major manufacturer
1993 — Began jewelry production at home while working at the company
2002 — Became independent as a sole proprietor
2009 — Established KELEN Co., Ltd., President & CEO
Present — Continuing practice