Kathleen Reilly

Kathleen Reilly developed a love for Japanese design during her time studying Silversmithing and Jewellery, when she travelled to the Hiko Mizuno College of Jewellery in Tokyo on the GSA's exchange programme. After gradauting from the GSA in 2015, she completed a masters degree at the Royal College of Art, and in 2019 travelled back to Japan thanks to a prestigious scholarship from the Daiwa-Anglo Japanese Foundation.

During this 19-month scholarship, Kathleen honed her metalworking skills and developed the Oku knife, an innovative product influenced by traditional Japanese place settings and arrangement. Designed and produced in collaboration with highly skilled craftspeople in Tsubame-Sanjo, a town with a 400 year history of metalworking, the knife has a unique folded handle that allows it to interact with objects on the table in new ways. The Oku knife went on to recieve the Dezeen Homeware Design of the Year award in 2022, and was exhibited at London Design Festival in 2024.

Kathleen continues to live and work in Japan. In addition to her artistic practice, she works as a guest lecturer at various international institutions, and contributes to research and design projects in Japan and the UK.